Once again Steve Beaton will be Coventry’s sole representative at this year’s 2016 William Hill PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, London in just over two weeks time, writes Ziad Chaudry.
Steve Hine and Kevin Dowling failed in their quest to grab the final two places at today’s PDPA Qualifier at Ricoh Arena.
Dowling, who has never reached the main stages of William Hill PDC World Darts Championship, was on a wrong end of the 5-2 scoreline to Jay Foreman in round two.
Hine, a baker by trade, failed to qualify for his fifth PDC world championships after heavily losing his sole match 5-1 to Mark Lawrence.
Warwickshire-based players fared slightly better despite not making it into the main 72-man field.
Leamington’s Nigel Heydon, who has twice appeared in the main stages, was also a second round loser to Alex Roy, 3-5.
In round four, Studley’s Pie Man Andy Smith lost a ninth leg decider against Gary Stone while Rugby’s Prakash Jiwa went down to 3-5 Michael Barnard.
The draw for the main stages of 2016 William Hill PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace sees 1996 BDO world champion Beaton play the current Oceanic Masters champion from New Zealand Koha Kokiri.
Since making the switch to the more lucrative PDC circuit in 2002 the Sky Blues fan failed to make a real impact on the World Championships as he never gone past the third round hurdle which has twice reached in 2002 and 2004.
In the last two years he suffered surprise first round exits to Devon Peterson and Kyle Anderson.
He described his performance at last year’s 3-0 defeat to Australian Anderson as ‘pants!’
And at last weekend’s Cash Converters Players Championship Finals at Butlin’s Minehead, Beaton again was a first round casualty this time to Scotland’s snakebite Peter Wright.
The 2016 William Hill PDC World Darts Championship features an increased record prize fund of £1.5 million this year, will be held across 15 days at London's Alexandra Palace, with 66,000 fans set to see the battle to claim the Sid Waddell Trophy.
The preliminary and first rounds will be held before the Christmas break, with the second and third rounds to be held between Christmas and New Year.
The quarter-finals are then played on New Year's Day, with the semi-finals on January 2 and the decisive final on Sunday January 3 as the first sporting World Champion of 2016 is crowned.
Tickets for many sessions have now sold out, but tickets can still be purchased through the methods available at http://www.pdc.tv/tickets/article/1mbw6c0x3o7g81fe7z6398yr0a/title/william-hill-world-championship-ticket-update otherwise catch all the action on Sky Sports from December 17.