The opening weekend of the 2021 PDC Women's Series on August 28-29 has been cancelled, with the four events that were due to be played in Niedernhausen now to be staged as part of the UK-based dates later this year.
The first four of 12 planned Women's Series events had been due to be staged in Germany later this month, offering £20,000 in prize money across the weekend.
However, due to a low number of entries, the vast majority of which were from UK players, the events have been cancelled and will now be moved to be staged as part of the two UK weekends in September and October.
"It's a shame that these events didn't attract a higher number of entries," said PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter. "It doesn't make sense for us to proceed with the cost of staging the events for such a low number of players, with only a handful being from mainland Europe.
"Almost all the 22 players who entered by Tuesday's closing date were from the UK and we don't want to deny those players the opportunity to compete across all 12 events, so we have taken the decision to reschedule the four German events to the later weekends in this year's Women’s Series.
"We appreciate that there are ongoing issues regarding travel during the Covid-19 pandemic, and also the cost of travel at present, so this will help the players who did show commitment to save on expenses too.
"We look forward to staging our further weekends in Milton Keynes in September and Barnsley in October and providing great opportunities for ambitious female players."
The PDC will retain a 12-event Women's Series by making each day of the planned September and October weekends in the UK a treble-header of three tournaments, which will feature live streaming via PDCTV.
The top two players from the final PDC Women's Series Order of Merit will qualify to compete in the 2021/22 William Hill World Darts Championship.
In addition, the leading money-earned from each respective weekend will qualify to compete in the 2021 Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts.
2021 PDC Women's Series
Revised Schedule
Events 1-3 - Saturday September 25, Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes
Events 4-6 - Sunday September 26, Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes
Events 7-9 - Saturday October 23, Barnsley Metrodome
Events 10-12 - Sunday October 24, Barnsley Metrodome