SEVEN players will progress to the final stage of Unicorn Darts' Next Generation competition as they bid to win a sponsorship to join the PDC circuit.
The Unicorn Next Generation scheme is bidding to find the potential darting stars of the future, coming alongside their release of the 'Next Generation' dartboard earlier this year when the Eclipse HD2 was unveiled.
Budding players entered the Unicorn Next Generation competition by uploading a two-minute video of themselves talking about why they wish to become a darts professional, explaining why they love darts and showing their throw.
The selection process, chaired by Unicorn Player Liaison Manager Matt Rankin, considered the video applications, with seven finalists progressing to the final stage at Unicorn's Nottingham offices this week.
The players moving through to the final are:
Jordan Boyce (Ireland, age 17)
Tom Cook (UK, age 18)
Bailey Golding (UK, age 16)
Cas Hogenhout (Netherlands, age 20)
Daniel Jensen (Denmark, age 20)
Connor Scutt (UK, age 20)
Morgan Smith (UK, age 17)
The finalists will now have to show off their talents in Unicorn’s showroom where Unicorn personnel, along with officials from the PDC including top referee Russ Bray, will have the difficult task of finding the winning three winning players.
The three winners will be unveiled at London's Alexandra Palace next month and will receive a Unicorn sponsorship to compete on the PDC circuit in 2017.
"We were very impressed by both the quality and quantity of the applications and it was really difficult to choose the finalists from so many obviously good and ambitious players," said Rankin.
"Whilst we hope it will be an enjoyable day for the finalists we will put them under a bit of pressure to see how they perform and try to replicate some of demands and conditions of a PDC event."
For further details about Unicorn Darts, visit www.unicorn-darts.com or follow @UnicornDarts on Twitter.
Watch out for special video features and footage from the Unicorn Next Generation Final Stage in the coming weeks!