Why one defeat now ends it
This is the third staging of the Amateur Darts Circuit’s end-of-season showpiece, running from 1 to 8 November at the MODUS Live Lounge in Portsmouth — the same studio that hosts the MODUS Super Series. What has changed is everything about how you win it.
The field has gone from 56 players to 128, an increase of 72 places. More importantly, the round-robin group stage has been scrapped. Every player now enters at the last 128 and plays a straight knockout, best of nine legs in round one. Since 128 halves seven times, the champion has to win seven matches without losing one.
Under the old structure a bad night was survivable: you played a group, you could drop a match and still advance on the table. Tweddell had no such cushion. Williams beat him 5-1 in the first session of the week, and a reign that began with a 9-7 win over Johnny Haines in the previous final was over before the tournament had finished its opening day.
Round one, day one results
Sixteen ties were played on the Sunday, and Tweddell was not the only recognisable name to lose. Jeff Smith, the Canadian who reached the 2016 BDO World Championship final at Lakeside before losing 7-1 to Scott Waites, was whitewashed 5-0 by Michael Wiles. Deta Hedman, the WDF Europe Cup women’s singles champion, lost 5-1 to David Davies.
Two former title-holders from the WDF side of the sport did come through. Neil Duff, who in 2022 beat Thibault Tricole to become the first world champion from Northern Ireland, beat Shaun Vernall 5-3. Brian Raman of Belgium, who finished 2021 as the WDF’s world No.1, beat Arne Spee 5-0 without conceding a leg.
| Winner | Beaten | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Williams (WAL) | Jack Tweddell (ENG) | 5-1 |
| Neil Duff (NIR) | Shaun Vernall (ENG) | 5-3 |
| Brian Raman (BEL) | Arne Spee (NED) | 5-0 |
| David Davies (WAL) | Deta Hedman (ENG) | 5-1 |
| Michael Wiles (ENG) | Jeff Smith (CAN) | 5-0 |
| Carl Wilson (ENG) | Marvin van Eenennaam (NED) | 5-0 |
| Maxim Lemahieu (BEL) | Wesley van Trijp (NED) | 5-2 |
| Heine Uuldriks (NED) | Natalie Gilbert (ENG) | 5-1 |
| Sam Spivey (ENG) | Lorenzo te Hennepe (NED) | 5-2 |
| Romeo Grbavac (CRO) | Scott Winder (SCO) | 5-2 |
| Marc Wilkinson (ENG) | Ultan McDyer (IRL) | 5-3 |
| Mat Caste (ENG) | Stephen Russell (CAN) | 5-4 |
| Bradley van der Velden (NED) | Michael Powell (ENG) | 5-4 |
| Marcel Otter (NED) | Gary Hayes (ENG) | 5-4 |
| Patrik Williams (ENG) | Meinte Hibma (NED) | 5-4 |
| Francesco Basili (ITA) | Karl Coleman (ENG) | 5-4 |
Round one needs 64 matches in all, so the first round alone takes up the opening days of the week. Five of the sixteen day-one ties went to a deciding leg, which is what a best-of-nine opening round is for.
How do you get into a 128-player amateur field?
Entirely by earning it, according to the ADC, which says the draw contains no wildcards and no invitations. The routes in are regional ranking positions — the number one in each ADC region goes straight through — combined standings across the circuit’s VAULT series, and dedicated qualifying events, including the Winmau Western European Tour.
The result is a field that reaches well past the English pub circuit the ADC grew out of. Qualifiers arrived this year from Africa, Canada and Australia alongside the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. Day one alone put players from ten nations on the stage, and three of the sixteen ties were won by Dutch players.
Where the £126,000 actually goes
The headline that the ADC has pushed hardest is that nobody leaves empty-handed: all 128 entrants are guaranteed prize money, with £500 for a first-round exit. That guarantee is not a rounding error in the budget. It is the single largest line in it.
| Stage | Players | Each | Stage total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Champion | 1 | £20,000 | £20,000 |
| Runner-up | 1 | £8,000 | £8,000 |
| Semi-finals | 2 | £4,000 | £8,000 |
| Quarter-finals | 4 | £2,000 | £8,000 |
| Round 4 (last 16) | 8 | £1,250 | £10,000 |
| Round 3 (last 32) | 16 | £1,000 | £16,000 |
| Round 2 (last 64) | 32 | £750 | £24,000 |
| Round 1 (last 128) | 64 | £500 | £32,000 |
The 64 players knocked out in round one take £32,000 between them. The champion and the runner-up take £28,000 between them. In other words the losers of the first round are paid £4,000 more, collectively, than the two players who reach the final — and the winner’s £20,000 is under a sixth of the fund.
Source: published ADC stage breakdown, summing to the £126,000 total. Bars scaled to the £32,000 paid to first-round losers.
A bigger field, a smaller cheque
That is a flatter payout than either previous staging, and the champion carries the cost of it. Devon Petersen won the inaugural edition in December 2024 for £25,000. Tweddell won the second for £60,000. The man or woman who wins this one gets £20,000 — the smallest winner’s cheque in the tournament’s short history, awarded in the year its field grew the most.
Whether that is the right trade is a fair argument. A £60,000 top prize is a headline and a life-changing sum for a player holding down a job around their darts. Spreading £126,000 across 128 entrants pays the travel and entry costs of a lot of people who would otherwise be out of pocket for the privilege of a televised beating. The ADC has picked the second option, and its own framing — compete locally, rank nationally, qualify for televised events — suggests it did so on purpose.
One thing the format change does not alter is what the trophy is worth beyond the money. There is no professional card at the end of it. Players who want one still have to go through Q-School in January, or earn it over a season on the Challenge Tour or Development Tour, as our guide to how a Tour Card is won sets out.
How to watch the rest of it
All 16 sessions — an afternoon and an evening session on each of the eight days — are streamed live and free on Pluto TV, with highlights on the MODUS Super Series YouTube channel. That makes this one of the easier weeks of the year to watch darts without paying for anything, and it runs straight into a crowded end to the season: the last Pro Tour floor events of the year, the Grand Slam, and the WDF World Championship at Lakeside at the end of the month.
Dates and venues for the professional run-in are on our 2026 darts calendar.