The PDC 2012 Qualifying School analysis
With the PDC Q-School rapidly approaching it makes for some fantastic analysis of who will be rubbing shoulders with the Worlds greatest darts players.
The 2012 Darts Q-School boasts an amazingly strong entry list, with some major dart names scrapping it out for one of the 34 available cards.
Hankey has an auto card and we think he will do well in the PDC, he hasn’t played well enough by his standards for quite while, but he knows he has to raise his game to even get on the TV and satisfy his fans and no doubt Sky Sports airtime lust – so good Luck Ted.
Winstanley will almost certainly qualify as he’s been BDO number 1 or 2 for well over a year now and he will mainly be playing BDO players and PDC strugglers.
Scott Waites has been rumoured to be looking at the entry list and like Dean he is a definite qualifier based on his talent and constant averages in the 90’s.
Tony and Steve West will offer anyone in the world a stern test and we expect them to qualify.
Tony has slightly better averages than Steve, but there’s not much in it.
Andy Jenkins is showing signs of returning to form and with his experience and we think he will get his card back.
Matt Clark is another one that we expect to pull through based on his current form.
Of the little known players one called Andrew Gilding springs to mind as we rate him quite highly (not a world beater yet or anything) but he’ll do well at this level.
After the above it’s anyone’s guess really….
There’s a whole batch of players where it depends on whether they are back to their best or not like Chris Mason, Peter Manley, Peter Evison and Alan Warriner
The BDO nearly men who are very young and heading over may get cards like Jamie Lewis, Joe Murnan, Ross Smith, Toon Greebe and Jerry Hendricks
The Q-School has attracted some decent foreigners and we think Kurt van der Rijk. Gino Vos, Mareno Michels, Connie Finnan, Geoff Kime will get cards.
Some darts players are back for a second chance after having a few decent results on the PDC circuit and only just missed out keeping their cards like Mark Frost, Nick Fulwell, Michael Barnard, Wayne Atwood and Adrain Gray.
However, there are at least 20 players who have entered that we have no records at all on so there maybe some wonderful surprises.
With only 40 cards and over 187 entries it’s going to be really tough, especially when you throw in the random draw system which means Waites could play Winstanley in the first round of the first day.
For interest the names below are who the Red Dragon Central database predicts on previous results will qualify for the PDC in 2012 (in order of likelihood)…
Dean Winstanley England
Andrew Gilding England
Chris Mason England
Andy Jenkins England
Matt Clark England
Peter Manley England
Mark Frost England
Tony West England
Wayne Atwood Wales
Mike Veitch Scotland
Darren Webster England
Michael Barnard England
Toon Greebe Holland
Adrian Gray England
Mark Lawrence England
Dave Smith England
Martyn Turner England
Steve West England
Ross Smith England
Jamie Lewis Wales
Gary Mawson USA
Phil Wathen England
Kevin Dowling England
Bernd Roith Germany
Nick Fulwell England
Steve Hardy England
Matt Edgar England
Chris Aubrey England
Gary Eastwood England
Pete Hughes England
Mick McGowan Ireland
Aodhagen O Neill Ireland
Connie Finnan Ireland
Ken MacNeil Canada
Matt Padgett England
Jerry Hendricks Holland
Marko Kantele Finland
Jim Walker England
Jamie Atkins England
Steve Grubb England