Dobey’s worst average of the day came in the final
DartsNews’ account of the final has Dobey winning the bull, breaking in eleven darts and leading 4-1 at the halfway stage before his doubling deserted him for the first time all day; Morris got it back to 7-4 before a 180 and an 81 finish closed it out. The 103.01 Dobey averaged for that match was the lowest of his five published averages on the day, which says less about the final than about the four matches that came before it.
| Round | Opponent | Race | Score | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 2 | Owen Bates | First to 6 | 6–0 | 108.65 |
| Round 3 | Mickey Mansell | First to 6 | 6–2 | — |
| Last 16 | Bradley Brooks | First to 6 | 6–2 | 105.77 |
| Quarter-final | Krzysztof Ratajski | First to 6 | 6–1 | 111.12 |
| Semi-final | William O’Connor | First to 7 | 7–4 | 109.68 |
| Final | Tommy Morris | First to 8 | 8–4 | 103.01 |
The quarter-final was the one. Ratajski had beaten Luke Littler 10-6 in Dortmund four days earlier and was the highest-profile player left in the draw; Dobey averaged 111.12 and won 6-1. He then put 109.68 past William O’Connor in the semi-finals. Seven matches, four published averages over 105, and one trophy.
Bars are scaled from a baseline of 100 to show the spread. No average was published for his round one or round three wins. Source: dartsnews.com and DartFreakz.
How many Players Championship titles has Chris Dobey won?
Eleven, and three of them this year. Dobey won Players Championship 3 in Wigan in February, beating Stephen Bunting 8-1 for his ninth career floor title, and Players Championship 9 in April, beating Justin Hood 8-4 for his tenth. Thursday made it eleven. Three floor titles in a calendar year is not an accident for him either; it is the sort of return that has become his signature on the circuit, away from the television cameras where most people form their opinion of a player.
The £15,000 also moves him to second on the Players Championship Order of Merit, the one-year table that decides the Minehead field, on £118,750. Wessel Nijman leads it on £154,500 and is out of sight.
Tommy Morris came off the reserve list and beat Van Gerwen, Manby and Smith
Eight of the world’s top 16 skipped the Den Bosch double-header, and when they did, their places went to the reserve list — non-Tour Card players and PDPA Associate Members, Morris among them. He was a line in an entry list on Monday. By Thursday evening he had £10,000 and a runners-up spot.
His route was harder than the champion’s. Mervyn King went 6-2, Kim Huybrechts 6-4, then Michael van Gerwen 6-4 in the third round. In the last 16 he beat Charlie Manby, who had won the title in the same hall 24 hours earlier, 6-2. Michael Smith went 6-2 in the quarter-finals, with Morris averaging 101.23. He then averaged 106.98 to beat Scott Williams in the semi-finals, and that was the best darts of his week.
A former world number one, a former world champion and the man who had won the title in the same hall the previous afternoon all lost to him inside a single day’s play. The 8-4 in the final was the only match Morris lost all week.
Three nine-darters, and the same man on the wrong end twice
Perfect legs arrive in clusters for no reason anybody has satisfactorily explained, and Thursday produced three of them. Wesley Plaisier hit the first official PDC nine-darter of his career in a 6-4 win over Damon Heta. Bradley Brooks hit one in the opening round, hours before Dobey beat him in the last 16. Tom Sykes hit the third in a 6-2 win over Cor Dekker.
Dekker is the detail. On Wednesday he lost 6-1 to Cristo Reyes in round one of Players Championship 31, and Reyes hit a nine-darter doing it. On Thursday he lost 6-2 to Sykes, and Sykes hit one too. Two days in Den Bosch, two first-round exits, two perfect legs thrown at him. For how rare that should be, see our guide to the nine-dart finish.
What Den Bosch did to the Minehead cut line
We wrote on Monday that two events missing half the game’s biggest names would not be weaker so much as redistributive, and that a disproportionate share of £300,000 would land on exactly the band of the floor table where Minehead places are decided. That is what happened, and the player it happened to is the one who was not there.
| Pos | Player | Prize money |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | Scott Williams | £35,750 |
| 56 | Michael Smith | £35,750 |
| 57 | Keane Barry | £35,750 |
| 58 | Gerwyn Price | £34,000 |
| 59 | Alexander Merkx | £33,750 |
| 60 | Ritchie Edhouse | £33,500 |
| 61 | Mike De Decker | £33,250 |
| 62 | Bradley Brooks | £32,500 |
| 63 | David Sharp | £32,500 |
| 64 | Wesley Plaisier | £31,750 |
| 65 | Henry Coates | £31,250 |
| 66 | Madars Razma | £30,250 |
| 67 | Mario Vandenbogaerde | £30,000 |
| 68 | Gary Anderson | £29,750 |
| 69 | Martijn Dragt | £29,500 |
| 70 | Jim Long | £29,250 |
| 71 | Cam Crabtree | £28,500 |
| 72 | Shane McGuirk | £28,500 |
Gary Anderson went into Wednesday 62nd on £29,750, £500 above the last qualifying place, and was not entered in either event. His total is still £29,750. He is now 68th, and four of the players who have gone past him are there on Den Bosch money: Mario Vandenbogaerde, Henry Coates, Martijn Dragt and Jim Long all collected at least one £1,250 last-64 cheque, which was the precise sum needed.
The two players who had been sharing the final place on an identical £29,250 did more than survive it. Scott Williams reached the semi-finals on Thursday for £6,500 and is now 55th on £35,750. Mike De Decker took a quarter-final at Players Championship 31 and sits 61st. Behind them, the two nine-darter men climbed into the places from outside: Brooks from 69th to 62nd, and Plaisier from 70th to 64th, which means the last Minehead place currently belongs to a man who threw a perfect leg to get it.
Anderson is not out of it. Two events remain, at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester on 4 and 5 November, and one last-16 run would put him back. He has to enter them, which he did not do here, and he has to hope the eleven players within £6,000 of him do less with the same opportunity. Ricardo Pietreczko, whose quarter-final in Den Bosch was his best floor result of the year, is 73rd on £28,250 and moving the other way.
For how the 64-player field is assembled and what happens once it gets there, our guide to the Players Championship Finals has the mechanics, and the rest of the season’s run-in is on the 2026 darts calendar.