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Players Championship Order of Merit: Michael van Gerwen still outside top 100 as Luke Littler hoisted further into Minehead spots

The 24th Players Championship of the year was a triumph for Jeffrey de Graaf yesterday and the Players Championship Order of Merit has been updated as a result as we approach the 25th of the season on Tuesday.

Michael van Gerwen was present in Milton Keynes, 'Mighty Mike' reached the last sixteen, in which he lost 6-3 to Scott Williams. On the Players Championship Order of Merit, the 36-year-old Dutchman is now 103rd. The top 64 after 34 tournaments eventually qualify for the Players Championship Finals. So while he only needs one or two good runs, whether he plays is always a question and he very much needs more of a sustained period of form to even think about booking Minehead.

The Dutchman still very much has time on his side but also it is not an exact science and with the calendar set to hot up immeasurably in the next few months it could yet prove to be a tournament without the Green Machine. Or even Nathan Aspinall for that matter who continues to be in danger in regards to qualifying at all.

Aspinall is not bothering playing this week and withdrew late from action alongside Gary Anderson who it seems will only play in one tournament while Gerwyn Price had a freak injury it seems. But for a player who is fighting for ranking survival as a result of money dropping off, he is not taking the Minehead race too seriously it seems.

Littler rises as new winner trend sees big names not safe at all

He sits in 75th. Luke Littler reached the fourth round on his ProTour return for the first time in many months and he is now up to 51st spot in the rankings. He added some good money to his total and presumably is playing at the moment for match sharpness and to book his spot in Minehead then he likely will pick and choose again. He lost to Rob Cross on Monday.

Luke Humphries is in 61st and isn't playing this week and so sits just on the cusp himself of not qualifying at all. Albeit he is more likely to play in upcoming events and is likely to just taking a week off that Littler and the like have done at times this season. While he is not a worry as he is currently qualified, it is one to watch.

Further up, Stephen Bunting in reaching that final also went up further back into the top 10. He is now ninth as a result of losing out to the Swede with Chris Dobey and Josh Rock in particular ahead of him not playing this week. Gerwyn Price, Damon Heta and Gian van Veen still lead the way only just. This ahead of Ross Smith who in reaching the semi-final managed to spread himself further ahead of Jermaine Wattimena.

But as the Players Championship series has taught us this year, it is all about potential new winners again with De Graaf bucking that trend. So while the big names are in Milton Keynes today, it is very much one that could see some interesting names hoist themselves into Minehead contention.

In addition with many of the top names likely to skip tournaments again very soon with a busy Autumn, it is very much strike while the irons hot and so the pressure will ramp up or many could be forced to spend their days in Leicester, Wigan and Hildesheim instead of on holiday ahead of many different majors towards the back end of the year. The Players Championship continues today with the 25th tournament, once again taking place in Milton Keynes. Littler, Van Gerwen lead the field with Damon Heta technically top seed as it is unlikely Price will be seen this week due to injury.

Players Championship Order of Merit

Rk Name Prize Money R1 R2 R3 R4 QF SF F W
1 Gerwyn Price 72,000







2 Damon Heta 71,000 70 71





3 Gian van Veen 70,000 70






4 Ross Smith 66,500 61.5 62.5 63 64 65 66.5

5 Jermaine Wattimena 61,000 59.5 60.5 61




6 Chris Dobey 59,000







7 Cameron Menzies 57,000 56 57





8 Josh Rock 54,500







9 Stephen Bunting 53,500 43.5 44.5 45 46 47 48.5 53.5
10 James Wade 49,500 48 49 49.5




11 Dirk van Duijvenbode 46,500 43 44 44.5 45.5 46.5


12 Jonny Clayton 44,500 43 44 44.5




13 Martin Schindler 43,000 41.5 42.5 43




14 Danny Noppert 43,000 43






15 Ryan Searle 42,000 41 42





16 Niels Zonneveld 42,000 42






17 Gary Anderson 42,000







18 Kevin Doets 40,500 40.5






19 Scott Williams 39,000 34 35 35.5 36.5 37.5 39

20 Wessel Nijman 39,000 38 39





21 Joe Cullen 39,000 39






22 Dave Chisnall 37,500 36 37 37.5




23 Andrew Gilding 37,000 36 37





24 Brendan Dolan 36,500 35.5 36.5





25 Krzysztof Ratajski 36,000 34.5 35.5 36




26 Mike De Decker 35,500 34.5 35.5





27 Sebastian Bialecki 35,000 33.5 34.5 35




28 Bradley Brooks 34,000 34






29 Jeffrey de Graaf 33,500 18.5 19.5 20 21 22 23.5 28.5 33.5
30 Rob Cross 33,500 30 31 31.5 32.5 33.5


31 Luke Woodhouse 32,500 31 32 32.5




32 William O'Connor 31,000 30 31





33 Karel Sedlacek 29,500 26 27 27.5 28.5 29.5


34 Ian White 29,000 29






35 Martin Lukeman 28,500 26 27 27.5 28.5



36 Dom Taylor 28,000 28






37 Alan Soutar 26,500 23 24 24.5 25.5 26.5


38 Michael Smith 26,500 24 25 25.5 26.5



39 Raymond van Barneveld 26,500 25.5 26.5





40 Daryl Gurney 26,000 26






41 Peter Wright 25,000 24 25





42 Cam Crabtree 24,500 23.5 24.5





43 Adam Lipscombe 24,500 24.5






44 Nick Kenny 24,000 21.5 22.5 23 24



45 Callan Rydz 24,000 23 24





46 Ricardo Pietreczko 23,500 23.5






47 Dominik Gruellich 23,000 22 23





48 Gabriel Clemens 23,000 23






49 Madars Razma 22,000 21 22





50 Ricky Evans 22,000 22






51 Luke Littler 21,000 18.5 19.5 20 21



52 James Hurrell 21,000 19.5 20.5 21




53 Justin Hood 21,000 21






54 Ryan Joyce 20,500 19 20 20.5




55 Owen Bates 20,500 20.5






56 Ryan Meikle 20,500 20.5






57 Darren Beveridge 19,500 18 19 19.5




58 Matthew Dennant 19,500 18.5 19.5





59 Mickey Mansell 19,500 19.5






60 Niko Springer 19,000 19






61 Luke Humphries 19,000







62 Ritchie Edhouse 18,500 17.5 18.5





63 Mario Vandenbogaerde 18,500 18.5






64 Steve Lennon 18,000 15.5 16.5 17 18



65 Max Hopp 18,000 18






66 Lukas Wenig 17,500 17.5






67 Jelle Klaasen 17,500 17.5






68 Mensur Suljovic 16,500 15.5 16.5





69 Stephen Burton 16,500 16.5






70 Wesley Plaisier 16,500 16.5






71 Keane Barry 16,000 15 16





72 Darius Labanauskas 16,000 15 16





73 Thibault Tricole 15,500 15.5






74 Adam Hunt 15,500 15.5






75 Nathan Aspinall 15,500







76 Dylan Slevin 15,000 14 15





77 Maik Kuivenhoven 15,000 15






78 Martijn Dragt 14,000 14






79 Patrick Geeraets 14,000 14






80 Connor Scutt 13,500 12.5 13.5





81 Jitse Van der Wal 13,500 12.5 13.5





82 Kim Huybrechts 13,500 13.5






83 Andy Boulton 13,500 13.5






84 Jamai van den Herik 13,000 10.5 11.5 12 13



85 Marvin van Velzen 13,000 13






86 Florian Hempel 12,500 11 12 12.5




87 Jose de Sousa 12,500 11 12 12.5




88 Chris Landman 12,500 11.5 12.5





89 Rob Owen 12,500 11.5 12.5





90 Carl Sneyd 12,500 12.5






91 Richard Veenstra 12,500 12.5






92 Berry van Peer 11,500 10.5 11.5





93 Adam Warner 11,500 10.5 11.5





94 Tom Bissell 11,500 11.5






95 Haupai Puha 11,500







96 Andy Baetens 11,000 10 11





97 Darryl Pilgrim 11,000 11






98 Christian Kist 10,500 10.5






99 Nathan Rafferty 10,500







100 Stefan Bellmont 10,500 10.5






101 Jim Long 10,500 10.5






102 Jimmy van Schie 10,000







103 Michael van Gerwen 9,500 7 8 8.5 9.5



104 Robert Grundy 9,500 9.5






105 Dimitri Van den Bergh 9,500 9.5






106 Kevin Burness 9,500







107 Leon Weber 9,500 9.5






108 Thomas Lovely 9,500 9.5






109 Brett Claydon 9,000 6.5 7.5 8 9



110 Maximilian Czerwinski 9,000







111 Greg Ritchie 8,500 7 8 8.5




112 Tavis Dudeney 8,500 7.5 8.5





113 Mervyn King 8,500 8.5






114 Viktor Tingstrom 8,500 8.5






115 Rhys Griffin 8,000 7 8





116 Benjamin Reus 8,000 8






117 Michele Turetta 8,000 8






118 George Killington 8,000 8






119 Ted Evetts 8,000 8






120 Stefaan Henderyck 7,500 6.5 7.5





121 Oskar Lukasiak 7,500 6.5 7.5





122 William Borland 7,500







123 Joshua Richardson 7,000 7






124 Matt Campbell 7,000 7






125 Andreas Harrysson 6,500







126 Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 6,500 6.5






127 Alexander Merkx 6,000 4.5 5.5 6




128 Danny Lauby 6,000 6






129 Cor Dekker 5,500 4.5 5.5





130 Danny van Trijp 5,500







131 Jarno Bottenberg 5,000







132 Adam Paxton 5,000 5






133 Tommy Lishman 5,000







134 Radek Szaganski 5,000 5






135 Tytus Kanik 5,000 5






136 Beau Greaves 4,500 3 4 4.5




137 Graham Hall 4,500 4.5






138 Tom Sykes 4,000







139 Jim Williams 4,000 4






140 Kai Gotthardt 4,000 4






141 Michael Flynn 3,500







142 Henry Coates 3,500







143 Pero Ljubic 3,500 3.5






144 Dennie Olde Kalter 2,500 2.5






145 Arno Merk 2,500







146 Jeffrey Sparidaans 2,500







147 Scott Campbell 2,000







148 Aden Kirk 2,000







149 Sietse Lap 1,500







150 Jack Tweddell 1,500 1.5






151 Ron Meulenkamp 1,000







152 Nathan Girvan 1,000







152 Sam Spivey 1,000







154 Graham Usher 1,000







155 Tim Wolters 1,000







This article first appeared on Dartsnews.com and was syndicated with permission.

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