PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf assesses the top ten PDC stars - based on their last 200 legs played - following last weekend's Ladbrokes UK Open in Minehead.
#1 Averages - Luke Littler
#1 OChE - Luke Littler
#1 Doubles - Gian van Veen
#1 171-180 - Luke Littler
#1 99, 101+ Checkout - Gerwyn Price
Luke Littler has added another huge trophy to his cabinet by threatening his highest-recorded form numbers to date.
With a 103.22 average over his last 200 legs and an OChE rating of nearly 69, no other player is producing these outstanding numbers at the moment.
In any other context, UK Open semi-finalist Josh Rock's total of 86 180s thrown over 200 legs would be an exceptional figure, but this week it is only good for a distant second place behind Littler's 107.
If Littler's third-best doubles percentage and total of 13 ton-plus checkouts (24 players have more) have proven to be no impediment to his winning yet another televised event, it is a result of the fact that no other player with slightly better checkout figures can hope to keep up with Littler's scoring.
The World Champion defeated three-time UK Open champion James Wade to clinch the title, and with a few more years of TV victories, Wade's PDC career will have exceeded the longevity of Phil Taylor’s.
Even if Wade has not won nearly as often as Taylor, his ability to remain competitive and relevant throughout 20 years of change and turmoil in the world of darts has no other equal.
With his runner-up finish in the UK Open, Wade has now appeared in at least one televised final in 16 of the last 20 years, beginning with the 2006 World Matchplay; held five months before the birth of Littler.
Aldershot veteran Wade has accomplished this by being one of the most efficient players in the sport.
His current 93 average and totals of 57 180s and seven ton-plus checkouts are not remarkable, but players putting forth such stats would expect to be winning only 47% of their legs against average PDC opponents.
Wade maintains an OChE rating of more than 52 by never letting a checkout or maximum go to waste.
Though his achievements have lately been overshadowed by the exploits of Littler, World Youth Champion Gian van Veen secured a memorable deciding-leg victory over Damon Heta en route to a third career TV quarter-final with complete mastery of finishing.
With Heta matching him nearly double for double - the 19 doubles hit in 24 attempts make it the most clinical match in UK Open (recorded) history - Van Veen completed eight of his ten checkouts in the fewest possible darts.
The young Dutchman averaged 110, raising him to the #3 position in averages in the Form Guide - ahead of seven Premier League players - and he finished his UK Open campaign as the #1 finisher in darts, on almost 49%.
Van Veen’s last 16 opponent Heta is one of the few players to have ever hit a majority of his doubles in the Form Guide, but if he can replicate that sequence of clinical checkouts going forward, Van Veen has the opportunity to surpass the Australian’s record.
While one need not be #1 in doubles to win the UK Open, the doubles struggles of several TV champions have clearly prevented them from reclaiming the glory which was once theirs.
Joe Cullen, Mensur Suljovic, Mike De Decker and Michael Smith are all in the top half of the ranking of 128 Tour Card Holders for averages over their past 200 legs, but rank near the bottom (in fact, in the bottom quartile) for their checkouts.
For Cullen, the mismatch between scoring and finishing is most apparent: he holds the 24th highest average (at 94.84) but the 111th highest doubles percentage, causing his OChE to be more akin to that of a player averaging 93.
Smith's appearance in the quarter-finals of the UK Open may have been his best result in a TV ranking event since Blackpool 2024, but hitting only one in three doubles (114th in the PDC) will put him, if continued, at a distinct disadvantage relative to Littler, Humphries and other favoured contenders.
*OChE (Ordinal Checkout Efficiency) explained:
OChE is a metric designed to evaluate the efficiency at which players convert their averages into legs won.
The statistic is the % of legs a player would expect to win on the ProTour, calculated from a weighted average of 4,5, 6 & 7 visit checkout rates.
Follow Christopher on Twitter @ochepedia