The draw for the Players Championship finals has been confirmed, with Luke Littler not defending his title in Minehead.
Littler did not enter enough behind-closed-doors Players Championship events this year to give himself a realistic chance of being in the top 64 in the ProTour rankings to qualify for the final tournament before the World Darts Championship.
Josh Rock and Nathan Aspinall were among the other stars to miss out, but all the other big names in darts have qualified, with Dutchman Wessel Nijman leading the way as he won six Players Championship events this year.
Nijman will face England’s Henry Coates, who was the last qualifier, in the first round, while tournament favorite Luke Humphries will take on Darryl Pilgrim.
Seven-time Players Championship finals champion Michael van Gerwen takes on Connor Scutt, while former world champions Gary Anderson and Rob Cross are in line to meet in the second round.
Beau Graves will face former Lakeside champion Christian Kist and there could be an exciting clash between Gerwyn Price and Gian van Veen if they win their opening matches.
The schedule will be confirmed at a later date with the tournament taking place from November 27-29.
The Players Championship Finals Draw
(in order of tie brackets)
The upper half
Wessel Nijman (1) vs Henry Coates (64)
Gabriel Clemens (32) vs Dave Chisnall (33)
Charlie Manby (16) vs Martin Schindler (49)
Cameron Menzies (17) vs Mensur Suljovic (48)
Beau Greaves (8) vs Christian Kist (57)
Tom Bissell (25) vs Rob Owen (40)
Ross Smith (9) vs Michael Smith (56)
Niels Zonneveld (24) vs Niko Springer (41)
Luke Woodhouse (4) vs Alexander Merkx (61)
Stephen Bunting (29) vs Max Hopp (36)
Sebastian Bialecki (13) vs Gerwyn Price (52)
Jeffrey de Graaf (20) vs Gian van Veen (45)
Jermaine Wattimena (5) vs Keane Barry (60)
Ryan Searle (28) vs Brendan Dolan (37)
William O’Connor (12) vs James Hurrell (53)
Tommy Morris (21) vs Callan Rydz (44)
The bottom half
Chris Dobey (2) vs Mike De Decker (63)
Richard Veenstra (31) vs Joe Cullen (34)
Cristo Reyes (15) vs Darius Labanauskas (50)
Michael van Gerwen (18) vs Connor Scutt (47)
Luke Humphries (7) vs Darryl Pilgrim (58)
Krzysztof Ratajski (26) vs. Damon Heta (39)
Danny Noppert (10) vs Scott Williams (55)
Jonny Clayton (23) vs Tom Sykes (42)
Kevin Doets (3) vs Ritchie Edhouse (62)
James Wade (30) vs Justin Hood (35)
Dirk van Duijvenbode (14) vs Alan Soutar (51)
Mike Kuivenhoven (19) vs Daryl Gurney (46)
Andrew Gilding (6) vs Bradley Brooks (59)
Kim Huybrechts (27) vs Joe Hunt (38)
Karel Sedlacek (11) vs Gary Anderson (54)
Rob Cross (22) vs Mickey Mansell (43)
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