Darts season so far: Five players who have impressed the most in 2022 and those with plenty of work to do

The Asset also highlights a cluster of players who have plenty of work to do in the remainder of 2022 for a variety of reasons…

Luke Humphries

Luke recently gave an interview where he said his goal at the start of the season was to win a title. He’s now won five – and four of those have come on the European Tour!

His first title was the opening Players Championship tournament of 2022 back in February so his goals pretty much changed overnight, and now they are looking dramatically different for the second half of the year.

A ranked major crown is now in his sights and if he does that then he’ll be a Premier League player in 2023 for sure.

He’s played incredibly well all season and his average is around the 97 mark after 87 matches which is elite level stuff considering the standard he’s been up against at the latter stages of tournaments.

Humphries will now be a seeded player at the World Matchplay in what will be just his second appearance in Blackpool which is remarkable when you consider Steve Beaton has never been a seed there!

He’s making all the right decisions in his life right now – including his diet and exercise – so it’s no coincidence that his performance levels and mental strength have improved.

In fact his upward curve over the past few seasons looks like a very predictable share price and his stock isn’t going to go down. If he doesn’t get that major this year, then I’m sure it’ll happen in 2023.

Josh Rock

The reason Josh Rock has caused such a stir with the standard of his performances this year is that hardly anyone had heard of him in December. Not even I knew who he was!

So, when you see his name – and what a name it is for a dart player – come through Q School with numerous three-figure averages we all wondered what he could do amongst the best in the business.

We found out pretty quickly as he continued to produce ridiculous numbers against many great players and he’s also shown superb consistency over six months.

As well as winning two Development Tour titles, his average of 96.40 from 39 matches on the Pro Tour is in the top 16 and higher than many big names.

There’s four Players Championship events before the cut-off for the World Matchplay and he’s done incredibly well to be just £9,000 outside the qualification places when you consider he only joined the 12-month long race back January.

Based on his performances this season, I wouldn’t be surprised if he picked up around £15,000 before the cut-off and put himself in the mix for one of the last slots but there’s no pressure on him.

Michael van Gerwen

Considering how much scrutiny was placed on Michael van Gerwen at the start of the season, I feel he deserves a spot in my top three.

He’s won the Premier League, two Players Championships and three European Tour events and that would already be deemed a remarkable season for any other player on the planet.

Now his surgery is out of the way and he hopefully feels much closer to 100%, he can use confidence from the last six months to tighten that gap between himself and Peter Wright and Gerwyn Price at the top of the rankings.

There’s a lot of things Michael has done in his career but he’s never reclaimed the world number one spot so he’ll definitely want to put that record straight in the next year or so.

To do that he’ll need to start winning ranked major titles again and where better to start than the World Matchplay, where he hasn’t triumphed since 2016.

Obviously his primary goal is to become world champion for the fourth time as that would get him closer to top spot in the rankings but for his confidence levels he’ll be hoping to have picked up one or two majors before then.

Scott Williams

At the start of the year we all knew that Scott was a decent player with bags of character and confidence – but when he won the first two Challenge Tour events of the season after failing to get through Q School his life changed.

All of a sudden he was being invited to pretty much all of the Pro Tour events but he’s also maintained his lead at the top of the Challenge Tour standings because that will mean earning a Tour Card for 2023 and the avoidance of going to Q School.

Then he starts earning his spots in European Tour events and beating the likes of Peter Wright on those stages to really underline his rich potential.

His Rupert The Bear trousers have helped him stand out with the crowds while he’s now joined an elite club of three players who have won Players Championship events without having a Tour Card – Joe Murnan and Krzysztof Ratajski being the others.

As a result Scott Williams is going to be at the World Championship and the Players Championship Finals, while he’s remarkably put himself in contention for the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix.

Honourable mentions

Damon Heta doesn’t get a lot of press but he’s averaged around 98 in just under 100 matches which is extraordinary consistency this season.

He’s got everything in his locker that every dart player would want to become a major champion and now he’s won the World Cup, you have to wonder what’s next.

Joe Cullen also has to get a mention for reaching the Premier League final on his debut as well as winning the Masters and two Players Championship events while Michael Smith’s resurgence of late is worthy of an honourable mention.

However, despite winning three Players Championships, a European Tour event and a World Series title in New York, he’s still not ended his wait for a major title and that’s ultimately what he’ll be judged on this season.

Players with work to do

There are a number of players looking over their shoulders and worrying about the prospect of losing their tour cards and sadly one of those is John Henderson.

Steve Beaton’s card is also under threat because he’s not going to qualify for the World Matchplay and will probably miss out on the World Grand Prix, where he’s defending money from two years ago.

Glen Durrant also had a tremendous 2020 when reaching the semi-finals of the World Matchplay so his current ranking slide is only going to get worse in the coming months.

It’s a sad state of affairs that he could well lose his card within two years of winning the Premier League and then he’ll have to decide whether to go through Q School or potentially just retire given how tough he’s finding the game right now.

We all look at a player like Steve Lennon and think of him as a Tour stalwart but he’s also in grave danger, which just shows how difficult it’s become to keep hold of cards these days with the depth of competition.

Gary Anderson isn’t a player with Tour Card concerns but having reached the final of the World Matchplay and World Championship two years ago, he’s defending around £300,000 from those tournaments alone this season.

If we look at his ranking situation, he’s projected to finish the year in 19th and that would surely end his chances of being included in the Premier League. However, his inclusion 10 years ago was deemed controversial because he was 19th in the world at the end of that season!

He’s still got the talent and has averaged over 96 for his 51 matches this season despite not really caring that much. If he refocused enough, he can raise that by five points at least.

It’s all about whether the fire is still burning inside him. If it’s not, he’ll drop out of the top 16 and have a big decision to make over his future.

Dimitri Van den Bergh is my last player on this list despite the fact he’s won two World Series events in Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

Everyone is saying how well he played– and he did – but all that money was unranked and those titles won’t get him in the Premier League again if he continues to slide down the rankings.

He won the World Matchplay two years ago so if he suffers an early exit this time around, he’ll start to drop.

Between now and the end of 2022 he will need to stay at the level he showed at World Series events to get back on an upward curve.

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