THE race for places in the 2007 Holsten Premier League Darts is set to go down to the wire at the SkyBet World Grand Prix next month.
The top six players in the PDC world rankings after the World Grand Prix will qualify automatically for the third staging of the Premier League.
Two further places will go to wildcards, with one to be announced at the end of October and the second after the 2007 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship.
Colin Lloyd and Phil Taylor's standings in the rankings guarantee them a place in the Premier League, with the other four spots still undecided.
Dennis Priestley's brilliant run of form on the circuit over the past two years has put him in pole position to earn a place.
He currently sits third in the standings for the Premier League places, six ranking points ahead of Peter Manley, ten ahead of Wayne Mardle and 11 clear of Ronnie Baxter.
Baxter is currently occuplying the sixth and final qualifying spot, but with four tournaments remaining there is still a race for points.
Roland Scholten, Adrian Lewis and Andy Jenkins are well placed, with four other players still in contention.
Kevin Painter, Terry Jenkins, Denis Ovens and Mark Dudbridge - who played in the inaugural Premier League Darts in 2005 - will hope that glory in the World Grand Prix or one of the other remaining events sees them jump up the standings.
"The Holsten Premier League has become the most talked-about tournament in the history of darts over the past two years," said PDC Chairman Barry Hearn.
"Professional darts has been taken to places the sport has never visited, and Sky Sports' superb production has also been rewarded.
"The decision to expand the Premier League to eight players in 2007, with even greater prize money, has given all the top professionals an added aim this summer.
"To have 13 players in with a chance of taking the six places is incredible and I look forward to the coming weeks."
The table below shows the current standings in the race for Holsten Premier League Darts places, which is each player's ranking points minus the points they are defending up to and including the SkyBet World Grand Prix.
|
1 |
Colin Lloyd |
513 |
|
|
2 |
Phil Taylor |
485 |
|
|
3 |
Dennis Priestley |
410 |
|
|
4 |
Peter Manley |
404 |
|
|
5 |
Wayne Mardle |
400 |
|
|
6 |
Ronnie Baxter |
399 |
|
|
7 |
Roland Scholten |
392 |
(-7) |
|
8 |
Adrian Lewis |
390 |
(-9) |
|
9 |
Andy Jenkins |
389 |
(-10) |
|
10 |
Kevin Painter |
376 |
(-23) |
|
11 |
Terry Jenkins |
374 |
(-25) |
|
12 |
Denis Ovens |
372 |
(-27) |
|
13 |
Mark Dudbridge |
371 |
(-28) |