THE field for the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship has been finalised, following the final Players Championship events held in Barnsley this weekend.
The Barnsley double-header completed the year's 32 PDC ProTour events, with over £1.8 million paid out in the series of European Tour events, UK Open Qualifiers and Players Championship tournaments.
The top 32 players from the main PDC Order of Merit qualify by right for the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship next month and are seeded for the first round draw.
Reigning World Champion Phil Taylor is the number one seed, with Michael van Gerwen seeded two, Adrian Lewis three, Simon Whitlock four and Andy Hamilton five.
James Wade is the number six seed, with Dave Chisnall seeded seventh, Wes Newton eighth and Robert Thornton seeded ninth, after he jumped above Raymond van Barneveld and Justin Pipe following the Barnsley weekend.
Kim Huybrechts, Kevin Painter, Mervyn King, Brendan Dolan and Peter Wright complete the top 16 seeds, while PDC Unicorn World Youth Champion Michael Smith is the 32nd seed after moving into the world's top 32 for the first time.
Smith's rise comes at the expense of Colin Osborne, the former UK Open finalist who also misses out on a qualifying place via the ProTour Order of Merit and will now compete in Monday's PDPA Qualifier in Barnsley, the last-ditch event where two places in the World Championship are on offer.
The leading 16 non-qualified players from the ProTour Order of Merit win World Championship places, led by Stuart Kellett, the UK Masters finalist who won £30,800 during the year and has risen to 35th in the main Order of Merit.
Jelle Klaasen, Jamie Lewis, Darren Webster, Ronny Huybrechts, Joe Cullen, Arron Monk, Mensur Suljovic, John Henderson, Dennis Smith, Ricky Evans, Kevin McDine, Dean Winstanley, Ross Smith, Mark Dudbridge and Steve Brown were the other ProTour Order of Merit qualifiers.
Ross Smith's qualification means that the place in the preliminary round reserved for the PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour Order of Merit winner - previously taken by Smith - is now passed to Ben Ward, the Dorset youngster who finished second in the Challenge Tour standings this year and will now make his debut in a major event at Alexandra Palace.
Monday's PDPA Qualifier is the final chance for players to win a spot in the World Championship, with the winner going straight into the first round and the runner-up taking a preliminary round spot.
The field will include two-time World Champions Dennis Priestley and Ted Hankey, former World Championship finalists Peter Manley and Kirk Shepherd, former UK Open champion Roland Scholten and ex-World Youth Champion James Hubbard.
The field will also include veteran ace Denis Ovens, who returned from carpal tunnel surgery this weekend and will be hoping to follow the lead of Dudbridge, who had a similar operation 12 months ago but has been back to his best in recent weeks.
The first round draw for the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship will be made on Monday December 2 around 11.30am, live on Sky Sports News, with the 32 seeded players drawn against the other qualifiers and the preliminary round winners.
The preliminary round draw will be made in advance during the Cash Converters Players Championship Finals weekend at the Butlins Minehead Resort.
Ladbrokes World Darts Championship Field
PDC Top 32
1 Phil Taylor (England)
2 Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands)
3 Adrian Lewis (England)
4 Simon Whitlock (Australia)
5 Andy Hamilton (England)
6 James Wade (England)
7 Dave Chisnall (England)
8 Wes Newton (England)
9 Robert Thornton (Scotland)
10 Raymond van Barneveld (Netherlands)
11 Justin Pipe (England)
12 Kim Huybrechts (Belgium)
13 Kevin Painter (England)
14 Mervyn King (England)
15 Brendan Dolan (Northern Ireland)
16 Peter Wright (Scotland)
17 Terry Jenkins (England)
18 Gary Anderson (Scotland)
19 Ronnie Baxter (England)
20 Paul Nicholson (Australia)
21 Ian White (England)
22 Steve Beaton (England)
23 Jamie Caven (England)
24 Colin Lloyd (England)
25 John Part (Canada)
26 Mark Webster (Wales)
27 Andy Smith (England)
28 Richie Burnett (Wales)
29 Mark Walsh (England)
30 Vincent van der Voort (Netherlands)
31 Wayne Jones (England)
32 Michael Smith (England)
ProTour Order of Merit Qualifiers
1 Stuart Kellett (England)
2 Jelle Klaasen (Netherlands)
3 Jamie Lewis (Wales)
4 Darren Webster (England)
5 Ronny Huybrechts (Belgium)
6 Joe Cullen (England)
7 Arron Monk (England)
8 Mensur Suljovic (Austria)
9 John Henderson (Scotland)
10 Dennis Smith (England)
11 Ricky Evans (England)
12 Kevin McDine (England)
13 Dean Winstanley (England)
14 Ross Smith (England)
15 Mark Dudbridge (England)
16 Steve Brown (England)
European Order of Merit Qualifiers
1 Max Hopp (Germany)
2 Mareno Michels (Netherlands)
3 Jarkko Komula (Finland)
4 Tomas Seyler (Germany)
Other First Round Qualifiers
Kyle Anderson (Australia) - DPA Australian Grand Prix champion
Beau Anderson (Australia) - DPA Oceanic Masters champion
Darin Young (USA) - PDC North American Order of Merit winner
PDPA Qualifier Winner
Preliminary Round Qualifiers
Colin McGarry (Northern Ireland) - Tom Kirby Memorial Irish Matchplay champion
Devon Petersen (South Africa) - South African Masters champion
Morihiro Hashimoto (Japan) - PDJ Japanese Qualifier winner
Ting Chi Royden Lam (Hong Kong) - Greater China Qualifier winner
Mohammed Latif Sapup (Malaysia) - South-East Asia Qualifier winner
Paul Lim (Singapore) - DARTSLIVE Soft-Tip Rankings Leader
Edward Santos (Philippines) - Philippines Qualifier winner
Gino Vos (Netherlands) - West Europe Qualifier winner
Rob Szabo (New Zealand) - New Zealand National Champion
Andree Welge (Germany) - German Qualifier winner
Zoran Lerchbacher (Austria) - Eastern Europe qualifier
Julio Barbero (Spain) - Iberian Qualifier winner
Per Laursen (Denmark) - SDC Scandinavian Order of Merit winner
Dennis Lindskjold (Denmark) - SDC Play-Off winner
Ben Ward (England) - PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour Order of Merit winner
PDPA Qualifier Runner-Up
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