PDC Tour Qualifying School: Fallon Sherrock, Noa-Lynn van Leuven both beaten early on day one of stage one | News about darts
Fallon Sherrock’s hopes of earning her PDC Tour Card suffered a setback after she was defeated in her opening Qualifying School First Stage match.
The PDC Qualifying Schools give any darts player aged 16 and over the chance to earn a two-year PDC Tour Card, with the Qualifying School taking place at venues in the UK and Germany simultaneously over a seven-day period.
The first stage takes place from Monday to Wednesday, with the eight quarter-finalists from each day automatically qualifying for the final stage, while the remaining places in the final stage – up to a total of 128 in each place – are decided by order of Merit.
Sherrock played in the UK Qualifying School, held at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, where she was beaten 5-4 by Shaun Carroll in the last 256 stage on Monday, although she will have the chance to progress to the final stage over the next two days.
The ‘Queen of the Palace’ fired an average of 83.37 before being beaten in the final decider and Sherrock was joined by Noa-Lynn van Leuven – the first trans player to end up at the World Darts Championship losing early on the opening day.
Van Leuven defeated Jordy Jozee with straight legs in his opening match, but lost 5-3 to Riccardo Rech in the final 256 stage of the European Qualifying School, held at Wunderland in Kalkar.
On the other hand, former world champion John Part was beaten 5-2 in his first match by Thomas Cromwell, while former world runners-up Mark Dudbridge and Andy Hamilton also lost their first matches against Frankie Ansell and Chris Hurds.
Mason Whitlock – son of former world runner-up Simon Whitlock – was beaten 5-1 in his opening match and Jarred Cole beat Devon Petersen in straight legs at the last-64 stage.
More to come…
What happens next at Q-School?
There are 474 players in first-stage action in the European Qualifying School, with 354 players in the UK Qualifying School, and players who lose their Tour Card at the end of 2024 are exempt from the final stage in any country.
They will be joined in the final stage by players in the top 16 from the respective Winmau Challenge Tour 2024 and Development Tour Orders of Merit who do not already have 2025 Tour Cards.
Players exempted from UK finals: Andy Boulton, Keegan Brown, Henry Coates, Lee Cocks, Tavis Dudeney, Lee Evans, Callum Goffin, Beau Greaves, Graham Hall, John Henderson, Jamie Hughes, Mervyn King, Aden Kirk, Jim Long, Charlie Manby, Arron Monk, Josh Payne , Christian Perez, Daniel Perry, Darryl Pilgrim, Adam Smith-Neale, Graham Usher, Adam Warner, Brandon Weening, Simon Whitlock.
Players excluded from the European final stage: Stefan Bellmont, Jeffrey De Zwaan, Adam Gawlas, Dominik Gruellich, Andreas Harrysson, Dragutin Horvat, Danny Jansen, Daniel Klose, Robbie Knops, Boris Krčmar, Maik Kuivenhoven, Darius Labanauskas, Jacques Labre, Alexander Merkx, Kayden Milne, Geert Nentjes, Rowby -John Rodriguez, Owen Roelofs, Karel Sedlacek, Jeffrey Sparidaans, Jurjen van der Velde, Jimmy van Schie, Danny van Trijp, Marvin van Velzen.
A total of 29 PDC Tour Cards will be on offer in the final stage, with each of the UK and European daily winners automatically awarded a Tour Card. The remaining 21 tour cards will be awarded to UK and Order of Merit players in the final phase of the European Q School and distributed on a pro-rata basis to the total number of participants in each region.
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