The darts world was glued to Leicester this week as Luke Littler made his long-awaited return to the Players Championship circuit, but the 'Nuke' faces an uphill battle to qualify for Minehead after a mixed double-header. Littler, who had not played a floor event all year, reached the quarter-finals of Players Championship 27 and the semi-finals of Players Championship 28, but the results left him outside the top 100 on the Players Championship Order of Merit with just £10,500 earned from the two events.
In Players Championship 27, Littler stormed through the early rounds with wins over Archie Self (6-2), Arno Merk (6-3), William O'Connor (6-3), and Chris Dobey (6-0), before falling 6-5 to eventual champion Jermaine Wattimena in the quarter-finals. The next day, Littler edged past Stephen Rosney (6-4), Benjamin Pratnemer (6-5), Martin Schindler (6-1), Andy Boulton (6-3), and Krzysztof Ratajski (6-4) to reach the semi-finals, where Brendan Dolan ended his run with a 7-4 victory. Despite the solid showings, Littler's deficit to the top 64 stands at around £17,000, with a maximum of eight tournaments remaining.
DartsNews.com Chief Content Officer Samuel Gill believes Littler's gamble may backfire. "Luke Littler is likely in my view to not make it to Minehead after the latest ProTour double header in what was perhaps a naive gamble which showed off the ProTour system at its finest," Gill said. "He will have to play multiple ProTours still before the turn of the year. Something that perhaps Littler didn't account for and I don't think he either bothers now or he falls short." Pieter Verbeek of DartsNieuws.com echoed the sentiment, noting Littler will likely need to win at least one of the remaining tournaments and probably reach another final.
Meanwhile, Jermaine Wattimena claimed the Players Championship 27 title, defeating Kevin Doets in the final, and broke into the top 16 of the PDC Order of Merit. Luke Humphries won Players Championship 28, his third ProTour title of 2026, and climbed back to second in the world rankings. Belgian darts also enjoyed a boost, with Mike De Decker reaching the semi-finals of PC28 to move up to 59th in the standings, while Kim Huybrechts reached the quarter-finals on both days and currently occupies the final qualifying spot for the World Grand Prix.
Mats Leering of DartsNieuws.com suggested Littler may skip the final floor tournaments of the year if he fails to win the World Series of Darts Finals in September. "Should he win the World Series of Darts Finals in September, he will therefore have to return to Den Bosch and genuinely pick up a daily title if he wants to keep his hopes of qualifying for the Players Championship Finals alive," Leering said. "If he fails to win the tournament at AFAS Live in Amsterdam, I don't think we'll see him again at the final floor tournaments of the year."
