By Daniel Wright
When you ask any PDC darts star which titles they want to win during the course of their career, you can expect to hear the World Matchplay listed with the World Championship and Premier League.
The 2025 edition of this aspect of darts’ Triple Crown is set to get underway this weekend at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, with Luke Humphries looking to retain the Phil Taylor Trophy. Humphries became just the fourth ever player to complete a career Triple Crown last year – a feat which his main rival and the current world champion Luke Littler or legend of the sport Raymond van Barneveld could match this time around.
The iconic ballroom venue in the Blackpool Tower has hosted the event since 1994 (apart from the COVID-affected 2022 tournament) and is a favourite of both fans and players alike. The trophy was named after Phil Taylor in 2018 to honour The Powers’ staggering 16 triumphs at the event. It also provides key prize money towards the Order of Merit, meaning 2023 champion Nathan Aspinall will need a good run to help his ranking. With the world’s top 16 and the 16 next highest ranked on the ProTour competing, here are my five “bold” predictions.
1) Neither Luke to Make the Final Four
This is certainly a very bold first prediction, but I am willing to put it out there. Humphries and Littler have been setting the standard in the sport, especially in major tournaments, but I believe that this will be a rare failure for both. Of all the individual majors since the leadup to “Cool Hand’s” world championship triumph these two have taken the vast majority of major titles between them, including all of the Triple Crown events since the 2023 Matchplay.
However, with the competition so fierce at the top of the game currently and many other players hitting form on both the Pro and Euro tours, I think that run will end here. Neither have really had many long runs on the ProTour this year and often have missed EuroTour events. I can see them being defied a few rounds in either by a massive average from an opponent or their own possible complacency.
2) Josh Rock to Record the Highest Average
One player who has shown form at both floor and televised events this year is one half of the newly crowned Northern Irish World Cup winners. “Rocky” has consistently been reaching the latter stages of tournaments, recording some incredible averages along the way. He is up to 15th in the Order of Merit after a Players Championship and best major result of reaching the semi-finals of the UK Open, in addition to the World Cup triumph with Daryl Gurney.
Rock hit a 9-darter just last week at a Players Championship event and has had some of the highest averages this year, including the highest one in defeat at the last EuroTour event. Considering he was unseeded for the Matchplay’s draw due to being outside the top 16 when it was made, he still has a relatively favourable but also potentially very high scoring first round match against 14th seed Ross Smith. I expect him not just to have a good run but hit the highest average of the competition at some stage.
3) Multiple 9-Darters During the Tournament
The 9-dart finish is undoubtedly the hardest feat to achieve in a game of darts and there have only ever been 9 of them in the history of the World Matchplay. Dimitri Van den Bergh was the most recent player to hit one at the tournament, in his first-round victory over Martin Schindler last year. The only player to hit two of them at the Matchplay is of course Phil Taylor, 12 years apart.
The only time that two 9-darters have been hit in the same edition of the competition was back in 2012 when both Michael van Gerwen and Wes Newton accomplished the feat a day apart. Now the quality of all the players fighting for the title is so high across the board, I think that at least two perfect legs will be thrown across the week at the Winter Gardens.
4) MvG to Be the First Big Name Out
This prediction may surprise or even potentially annoy a few fans, but I can see “The Green Machine” having a difficult tournament. Van Gerwen has struggled to find form this year, despite starting it with a run to the World Championship final. He even missed out on the playoffs during the final league week of the Premier League to Nathan Aspinall- for only the second time in 13 years.
The 3-time world champion didn’t get a nightly win in the Premier League and has had a lean year on all fronts, with odd flashes of his old form like when he beat Gian van Veen to win the German Darts Grand Prix in April. He’s also only recently returned from a break for personal reasons, and therefore I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being the first of the very top seeds to be knocked out in Blackpool- even if he defeats Dutch compatriot RvB in his opener.
5) The Iceman to Keep His Cool and Win
One man who certainly has rediscovered his best form of late is the 2021 world champion Gerwyn Price. He had a difficult 2024 and was no longer Welsh number one but has bounced back fantastically this year. Price has three Players Championship, one EuroTour and one World Series win already in 2025- as well as reaching the World Cup final with Johnny Clayton. He also reached the Premier League playoffs, with three nightly wins and two 9-darters, before being defeated by Luke Littler in the semi-finals.
Price’s form has been excellent for a few months now but his Baltic Sea Darts Open title in Germany, where he beat Gary Anderson in the final, came just last week. When the Welshman is on song very few can even get close to his averages, and he has blown even the two Lukes away on occasion in 2025. Its on that basis that I would have to say that he is my favourite to take the Phil Taylor trophy for the first time in his career.