John Part and Peter Manley will compete in the 2017 PDC Qualifying School
Tuesday 24 January 2017 14:36, UK
Three-time world champion John Part and former runner-up Peter Manley 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.
Canadian star Part won his first world title at Lakeside in 1994 before winning the PDC crown twice in 2003, when he defeated Phil Taylor in a classic, and 2008, against 21-year-old debutant Kirk Shepherd.
The 2003 Las Vegas Desert Classic winner and three-time world finalist Manley will take to the oche alongside former Players Championship Finals winner Paul Nicholson, 1996 World Matchplay champion Peter Evison and ex-TV finalists Ronnie Baxter, Mark Dudbridge, Wayne Jones, Barrie Bates, Colin Osborne and Kirk Shepherd.
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 and a third brother, world No 41 Rowby-John.
Mark Frost, Dragutin Horvat, Boris Koltsov, Zoran Lerchbacher, Kevin Simm and Jerry Hendriks recently competed in the World Darts Championship, while another Dutchman, Jimmy Hendriks, was knocked out in the preliminary round at the Lakeside Championship.
Former Lakeside Champion Richie Burnett will also be in action, having returned from suspension on the PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour in 2016, where he won two tournaments out of 11 during the year.
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 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).
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