Dave Chisnall clinches 'wooden spoon' from Hungarian Darts Trophy as European Tour losing streak continues

Once so prolific on the European Tour, Dave Chisnall has now been handed the 'wooden spoon' after an unfortunate turn of events in the Hungarian Darts Trophy.

Chizzy came into the event desperate for a good result, with his place in the European Championships looking heavily under threat. This is not a situation the Englishman is used to being in. He is widely known as one of the best players on the Euro Tour, having emerged victorious eight times. Only Michael van Gerwen has more.

However, his previous form has been overturned into a barren run of results. He started the year by reaching the quarter-finals in the Belgian Darts Open, losing out to eventual winner Luke Littler. He backed that up with four consecutive third-round exits.

Since then, he has failed to even make it to Sunday, despite the advantage he gets in being a top 16 player. He last won a match on the Euro Tour back in the fifth event in Graz, Austria, where he defeated Ian White before coming a cropper against Ryan Joyce.

Seven back-to-back events for Chizzy without a win, and to add something on top of that, he earned the wooden spoon in Budapest last weekend. The 6-1 routing he was given by five-time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld started the unfortunate tale of events that led to Chisnall coming theoretically last.

Barney went on to lose 6-2 against Gerwyn Price, who withdrew on medical reasons before his tie against Littler, who lost against Danny Noppert, who was defeated by Niko Springer for his first Euro Tour title.

While this may not mean much in the grand scheme of things, it just goes to show what a torrid run the former World Championship semi-finalist is on. After a bruising second-round defeat to Ricky Evans at Ally Pally, his chances of a Premier League spot had all but been extinguished. He fell out of his top four position, overtaken by Stephen Bunting, and has since continued to tumble down the rankings.

Opening round exits in the World Masters and the World Matchplay have cemented Chizzy's fall from the top, as he attempts to find his previous form. As things stand, he will return to Ally Pally as the number 17 seed, and that is before all the big upcoming major tournaments have been played.

His European Championship hopes fall back on the remaining two events in Basel and Hildesheim. He does sit in 31st currently, and will take an automatic chunk of money for progressing into round two, but with stiff competition behind him and a gap of just £1.5k from non-qualification, Chisnall is looking behind him rather than in front.