Players Championship 34 draw: Humphries faces De Decker as Minehead race reaches deadline

The Players Championship 34 draw has paired Luke Humphries with Mike De Decker as the race to qualify for the Players Championship Finals reaches its final day in Leicester.

Humphries returns to the Mattioli Arena after winning Wednesday’s title, while De Decker begins the deciding event close to the Minehead qualification cut-off.

Play starts at 1pm GMT on Thursday 5 November. The 128-player tournament is the last Players Championship event of 2026, with £15,000 for the winner and the final places in the 64-player Finals field at stake.

Players Championship 34 draw: key first-round matches

Humphries faces an opponent with more than a first-round victory to play for. De Decker entered the event 63rd on the Players Championship Order of Merit, level on prize money with Henry Coates in the final provisional qualifying place.

Wesley Plaisier starts just £250 behind that mark and faces Cameron Menzies. Coates meets Jeffrey de Zwaan, while David Sharp has drawn James Wade.

Player	First-round opponent
Luke Humphries	Mike De Decker
Wesley Plaisier	Cameron Menzies
Henry Coates	Jeffrey de Zwaan
David Sharp	James Wade
Bradley Brooks	Rhys Griffin
Peter Wright	Carl Sneyd
Josh Rock	Tyler Thorpe
Raymond van Barneveld	Jimmy van Schie
Gary Anderson	Andy Boulton
Michael van Gerwen	Leon Weber
Wessel Nijman	Adam Paxton
Chris Dobey	Keane Barry

The full PC34 draw and results page lists all 64 opening matches.

Who needs a big run to reach the Players Championship Finals?

Peter Wright and Josh Rock begin the day needing deep runs to keep their Minehead hopes alive.

Wright is 88th with £23,750, leaving him £9,500 behind the starting cut-off. Rock is 84th on £26,000, a deficit of £7,250.

Those gaps are starting positions, rather than fixed qualification targets. The cut-off can rise as other players earn prize money during PC34.

Raymond van Barneveld’s quarter-final run on Wednesday improved his position, but he remains 69th and £3,500 outside the provisional qualifying places. Madars Razma is 67th, £3,000 short, and opens against Oskar Lukasiak.

Gary Anderson moved in the opposite direction, climbing from 68th to 57th after reaching the PC33 semi-finals. He starts Thursday £3,000 above the cut-off.

Luke Littler and Nathan Aspinall are absent from PC34 and will miss the Finals. Qualification is determined by the season’s Players Championship rankings, rather than the main PDC world rankings.

Luke Humphries returns after fourth Players Championship title

Humphries beat Niels Zonneveld 8-4 in Wednesday’s final, averaging 103.77 and finishing with an 11-dart hold.

He had beaten Steve Lennon and Gerwyn Price 6-2 before overcoming Anderson 7-4 in the semi-finals. The result gave him his fourth Players Championship title of 2026.

The win followed an illness that forced him to miss the European Championship. Humphries said food poisoning had left him unable to eat and caused a 15lb weight loss.

Read our report on Humphries’ illness and title-winning return in Leicester for his reaction.

How to watch Players Championship 34

Selected matches are streamed on PDCTV, with play beginning at 1pm GMT. Streaming coverage does not show every board, so viewers should also follow the results service for matches outside the broadcast selection.

Matches through the quarter-finals are best of 11 legs. The semi-finals are best of 13, with the final played over the best of 15.

Our Players Championship 33 and 34 viewing guide has further coverage information. The finishing time depends on the progress of play.

When is the Minehead qualification field confirmed?

The top 64 players on the final Players Championship rankings qualify once PC34 concludes.

The Players Championship Finals take place at Butlin’s Minehead from 27-29 November. Before then, the Grand Slam of Darts runs in Wolverhampton from 14-22 November.

Thursday’s results also contribute to the wider World Championship qualification race, although that uses a different qualification system. Follow our PDC majors coverage for further developments.

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