Coverage from the Citywest Hotel gets underway on Sunday, October 6 - live on Sky Sports Arena
Sunday 22 September 2019 21:17, UK
World youth champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and Mervyn King claimed the final two places at next month's BoyleSports World Grand Prix.
The weekend's Players Championship events, won by Daryl Gurney and Mensur Suljovic, were also the last chance for players to earn a spot at the year's next major and the race went almost all the way on Sunday.
In the end, King, the 2012 Grand Prix runner-up and Belgium's Van den Bergh held on to the places they occupied at the start of the day despite brave attempts from Jose De Sousa, Gabriel Clemens and Ron Meulenkamp to force their way in.
Van den Bergh is one of six players who will make their debut, and The Dreammaker's penchant for a toe-tapping walk-on will delight the Dublin crowd after he wrapped up the last spot via the ProTour Order of Merit.
He will be joined at the double-start tournament at the Citywest Convention Centre by a string of high profile first-timers that include three-time BDO champion Glen Durrant, UK Open champion Nathan Aspinall, Krzysztof Ratajski, Jamie Hughes and Chris Dobey.
A total of 32 players will head to Dublin chasing the title, with world No 1 Michael van Gerwen looking to defend the prize he won for a fourth time last year, but having won on three previous occasions at the Citywest, he has never managed to retain his title.
The Dutchman tops the seedings that include two former champions in the shape of 2017 winner Daryl Gurney and 2007 and 2010 champion James Wade with the draw set to take place on Friday, September 27.
World Matchplay champion Rob Cross is seeded second with Gurney third and former finalist Gary Anderson completing the top four for the event which boasts a record £450,000 in prize money.
World Championship finalist Michael Smith is seeded fifth, Grand Slam of Darts champion Gerwyn Price seeded sixth and 2018 runner-up Peter Wright is seeded seventh with Wade completing the seeded names ahead of the draw which will take place on Thursday.
Other notable names in the field include 2019 European Tour event winners Ian White, Mensur Suljovic, Dave Chisnall and Joe Cullen, as well as 2010 World Grand Prix finalist Adrian Lewis.
With record prize money to play for, the action will be broadcast live on Sky Sports for UK viewers, on PDCTV-HD for Rest of the World Subscribers and through the PDC's global broadcast partners worldwide.
PDC Order of Merit Qualifiers (Seeding in brackets)
(1) Michael van Gerwen
(2) Rob Cross
(3) Daryl Gurney
(4) Gary Anderson
(5) Michael Smith
(6) Gerwyn Price
(7) Peter Wright
(8) James Wade
Mensur Suljovic
Ian White
Dave Chisnall
Simon Whitlock
Nathan Aspinall
Jonny Clayton
Adrian Lewis
Joe Cullen
ProTour Order of Merit Qualifiers
Krzysztof Ratajski
Glen Durrant
Jermaine Wattimena
Jamie Hughes
Jeffrey de Zwaan
Ricky Evans
Steve Beaton
Keegan Brown
Chris Dobey
Stephen Bunting
Danny Noppert
Max Hopp
John Henderson
Vincent van der Voort
Mervyn King
Dimitri Van den Bergh
The action in Dublin gets underway on Sunday, October 6 at the Citywest Arena and seven days of coverage continues until the final on Saturday, October 12.
