ALMOST 450 players will compete in the 2017 PDC Qualifying School from January 19-22, with 28 PDC Tour Cards on offer across the four days of action at the Robin Park Tennis Centre.
The PDC Qualifying School gives ANY aspiring darts player aged 16 or above the chance to win a Tour Card to compete as a professional on the PDC ProTour.
A total of 28 Tour Cards will be on offer at the 2017 PDC Qualifying School to create a total of 128 Tour Card Holders for 2017, comprised as follows:
* Top 64 players from the PDC Order of Merit following the completion of the William Hill World Darts Championship
* 32 2016/2017 Tour Card Holders outside of the world's top 64
* 2016 PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour top two - Rob Cross & Ryan Searle receive two-year Tour Card
* 2016 PDC Unicorn Development Tour - Ross Twell & Aden Kirk receive two-year Tour Card (NB Dean Reynolds rejected Tour Card, which was offered to third-placed Aden Kirk).
Each of the four days of play in Wigan will see four players win a Tour Card automatically, with play on each day being down to the last four.
Ranking points will be allocated to other players based on their finishing position to see a further 12 Tour Cards allocated from the Q School Order of Merit following the four days of action.
The field of players for the 2017 PDC Qualifying School includes three-time World Champion John Part and former Players Championship Finals winner Paul Nicholson, who are amongst the players to have dropped out of the world's top 64 in the past year.
Former TV finalists Ronnie Baxter, Mark Dudbridge, Wayne Jones, Barrie Bates, Colin Osborne and Kirk Shepherd are also amongst the entrants, alongside experienced professionals Andy Smith, Steve Hine, Mickey Mansell, Stuart Kellett and Alan Tabern, former World Matchplay champion Peter Evison and former Las Vegas Desert Classic winner Peter Manley.
Former World Youth Champions Arron Monk and James Hubbard are also bidding to win back their Tour Cards alongside 2015 finalist Nathan Aspinall, while 16-year-old Rusty-Jake Rodriguez joins older brother Roxy-James in trying to win a Tour Card alongside a third brother, world number 41 Rowby-John.
Mark Frost, Dragutin Horvat, Boris Koltsov, Zoran Lerchbacher, Kevin Simm and Jerry Hendriks recently competed in the William Hill World Darts Championship, while another Dutchman, Jimmy Hendriks, was knocked out in the preliminary round at the Lakeside Championship.
Former Tour Card Holders bidding to win back their professional status include Germany's Jyhan Artut, Japan's Haruki Muramatsu, Canada's Ken MacNeil, Hong Kong's Ting Chi Royden Lam, Spain's Antonio Alcinas and Gibraltar's Dyson Parody.
Former Lakeside Champion Richie Burnett will also be in action at Qualifying School, having returned from suspension on the PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour in 2016, where he won two tournaments out of 11 during the year.
Results from the 2017 PDC Qualifying School will be available at www.pdc.tv throughout the weekend in Wigan.
2017 PDC Qualifying School Entries
Ben Adams
Antonio Alcinas
Nolan Arendse
Jyhan Artut
Dave Askew
Nathan Aspinall
Duvaan Ata
Richard Baillie
Jamie Bain
Jack Bannister
Julio Barbero Gonzalez
Michael Barnard
Hayden Barnes
Keith Bassett
Barrie Bates
Jeff Batham
Max Baulcomb
Mark Baxter
Ronnie Baxter
Andrew Belton
Nigel Birch
Michael Blake
Nicholas Bloor
Nigel Boeg
Danny Bosch
Richard Boucher
Stuart Bousfield
Jordan Boyce
Paddy Boyce
Justin Bradshaw
Kenneth Bramall
Derek Brand
Jamie Branton
Bradley Brooks
Gary Broomhead
Justin Broton
Darren Brown
Jim Brown
John Brown
Steve Brown
John Bryan
Lee Bryant
Michael Burgoine
Trevor Burkhill
Kevin Burness
Richie Burnett
Aubrey Burt
Stephen Burton
Stephen Butkeraitis
Richard Calvert
Allan Candlish
Philip Canty
Ricardo Fernandez Carballo
Francis Carragher
Shaun Carroll
Keith Carter
Simon Cassidy
Matthew Clarke
James Clifton
Daniel Cole
Tony Cole
Paul Cook
Jacob Cooksey
Jamie Cooper
David Copley
Stephen Cotter
Lewis Coult
John Court
Joe Croft
John Crossley
Wayne Crossley
Bobby Crozier
Andrew Currivan
Christopher Dale
Scott Dale
Nigel Daniels
Scott Darbyshire
Joe Davis
Bryan de Hoog
Ryan De Vreede
Nathan Derry
Mark Devon
Marc Dewsbury
Matthias Dietrich
Henry Doherty
Daniel Dootson
Eddie Dootson
Brian Doran
Steve Douglas
Kevin Dowling
Andrew Downs
Mark Dudbridge
Dylan Duo
Stuart Dutton
Pete Dyos
Matthew Edgar
Ritchie Edhouse
Allan Edwards
Andrew Edwards
Lennart Curt Efraimsson
Rene Eidams
Alexander Elia
Nicholas Ellis
Luke Ely
David Evans
Kieran Evans
Steve Evans
Peter Evison
David Fatum
Paul Fellows
Pierre Finck
Peter Fisher
Glenn Fitzpatrick
Dean Forde
Jay Foreman
Mark Forman
Colin Fowler
Mark Frost
Robert Fuller
Samuel Fuller
Nick Fullwell
Dale Gadsby
Billy Gallie
Stephen Gallimore
Kevin Garcia
George Gardner
John Gibson
Craig Gilchrist
Robbie Gorst
Adrian Gray
Taylor Greaves
Sven Groen
Jamie Guilfoyle
Gary Gullan
David Hack
Sheamus Hagan
James Hajdar
Andreas Hajimina
Dorion Hall
Sam Hamilton
Curtis Hammond
Steven Harbert
Stuart Harding
Dan Harrington
Ryan Harrington
Kelvin Hart
Ryan Hart
Chris Hartrey
Paul Harvey
Steve Hattersley
Teuvo Haverinen
Shouichi Hayashi
Lee Hayes
Sam Head
Tom Heldt
Jerry Hendriks
Jimmy Hendriks
Sascha Hertrich
Rob Hewson
Nigel Heydon
Steve Hine
Ashley Holgate
Billy Holmes
Rob Holroyd
Dave Honey
Tim Hope
Chris Hornby
Dragutin Horvat
Andrew Howarth
Richie Howson
James Hubbard
Adam Huckvale
Peter Hudson
Robert Hughes
Thom Humphrey
Luke Humphries
Adam Hunt
Michael Huntley
Ian Hurley
Atif Hussain
Andy Hutchings
Dean Hyde
Mark Hylton
Garath Illidge
Dariusz Imbs
Craig Ingram
Charlie Jackson
Rhys Jackson
Peter Jacques
Alan Jamieson
David Jamieson
Paul Jenkins
Nick Jennings
Prakash Jiwa
Mark Jodrill
Sonny Johal
Andrew Johnson
Darren Johnson
Sean Johnson
Wayne Jones
Jon Jukes
Rhys Julian
Christian Kallinger
Martin Kask
Michael Kavanagh
Danny Kay
Stuart Kellett
Ash Khayatzadeh
George Killington
David King
Steve Kingdon
Boris Koltsov
Arjan Konterman
Karsten Kornath
Maik Kuivenhoven
Dave Ladley
Ting Chi Royden Lam
Jamie Landon
James Lane
Kevin Lane
Maik Langendorf
Liam Last
Mark Lawrence
Roland Lenngren
Steve Lennon
Zoran Lerchbacher
Kai Fan Leung
Ian Lever
Nicholas Lewis
Stephen Limer
Tony Lincoln
Colin Littlecott
Ian Locke
Tom Lonsdale
Callum Loose
Edward Lovely
Jason Lovett
Douglas Low
Jason Lowe
Oskar Lukasiak
Martin Lukeman
Barry Lynn
Stef Macare
Callum Mackay
Ken MacNeil
Alan Magee
Peter Manley
Mickey Mansell
Steven Marfleet
Robert Marijanovic
Fynn Marquardt
Jason Marriott
David Marson
Tony Martin
Dale Masterman
Chris Mathews
Shaun Matthews
Jay McCann
Jim McKevitt
John McCafferty
Josh McCarthy
Kevin McDine
Kevin McDonnell
Tom McIntosh
Kevin McKinney
Steve McNally
Alan McNiven
Neil Meneer
Karl Merchant
Mareno Michels
Paul Milford
Peter Mitchell
Ian Moar
Lee Moffat
Stuart Monaghan
Arron Monk
Matthew Moore
Barry Morgan
John Morris
Lee Morris
Roy Morris
Sandy Morrison
Ian Moss
Jim Moston
Haruki Muramatsu
Jay Murphy
Ryan Murray
Dawson Murschell
Coni Singh Nagi
Eikichi Nakanishi
Ricky Nathan
David Neale
Scott Newton
Paul Nicholson
John Jnr Norman
Robert Norster
Richard North
Mike Norton
Andy Nye
David O'Donovan
Damien O'Driscoll
Gabriel Florin Olar
Richard Onions
Keita Ono
Colin Osborne
Paul Osmotherley
Matt Padgett
Joey Palfreyman
Ricky Palmer
Richie Parkin
Dyson Parody
Kurt Parry
John Part
Thomas Pavarotti
Tatu Pehkonen
Jesus Noguera Perea
Steve Perkins
Steve Perry
Paul Phillips
Nigel Pinchen
Jose Henrique Pinto De Sena
Richard Platt
Michael Plooy
Diogo Portela
John Power
Michael Power
Andrew Poynton
Marko Puls
John Purcell
Chris Quantock
Rohit Rabadia
Nathan Rafferty
Dai Randall
Steve Randall
Michael Rasztovits
Madars Razma
David Read
Paul Reeve
Craig Reeves
Michael Regus
Shane Reidy
Lars Reinecke
Richard Betteley
Nathan Richards
Joshua Richardson
Par Riihonen
Ross Rimmer
Greg Ritchie
Terry Roach
Mario Robbe
Jamie Robinson
Reece Robinson
Carlos Rodriguez
Roxy-James Rodriguez
Rusty-Jake Rodriguez
Colin Roelofs
Bernd Roith
Scott Rollings
Paul Rowley
Nigel Russell
Paul Russell
Sean Ryan
Callan Rydz
Warrick Scheffer
Martin Schindler
Roger Scrivens
Connor Scutt
Ron Seddon
Jose Ventura Seijas Ramos
Ioannis Selachoglou
Laurie Selby
Kelvin Self
Kirk Shepherd
Lee Shewan
Lee Siddle
Eelco Sieperda
Stephen Silver
Kevin Simm
Marco Smit
Andy Smith
Daniel Smith
Justin Smith
Morgan Smith
Paul Smith
Steve Smith
Adam Smith-Neale
Ben Songhurst
Jose Sousa
William Stallard
Mark Stephenson
Aaron Stevens
Evander Stevenson
Dean Stewart
Micky Stocks
Gary Stone
Stuart Stubbs
Stuart Stubbs Snr
Ricky Sudale
Kentaro Suzuki
Charlie Symons
Radoslaw Szaganski
Alan Tabern
Alan Tabern Jnr
Michael Tafner
Scott Taylor
Kevin Thomas
Martin Thomas
Jack Todd
Mick Todd
Emre Toros
Martyn Turner
Willy van de Wiel
Michel van der Horst
Michael Van Dijk
Benjamin van Erven
Carlo van Peer
Kevin Veenstra
Davyd Venken
Wilco Vermeulen
Manuel Vilerio
Jim Walker
Richie Walsh
Ben Ward
Harry Ward
Chris Ware
Lee Watkins
Matthew Watson
Mark Westgarth
Adam Whieldon
Andy White
Chris White
Eddie White
Arron Wike
Alan Wilkinson
Carl Wilkinson
Bradley Williams
Josh Wills
Chris Wilson
David Wilson
Evan Wilson
Jason Wilson
Mark Wilson
Ian Withers
Michael Wood
Luke Woodhouse
Yuki Yamada
James Young