The lottery of PDC Qualifying School, Raymond van Barneveld's motivations and Tour Card hopefuls to watch

• Qualifying School Guide

The UK and European Qualifying Schools are currently taking place in Milton Keynes and Niedernhausen (February 8-17) with a new format to ensure two streamlined final stages, where there will no doubt be a mixture of new dreams being made and faltering careers saved.

Former major winner and leading darts pundit Paul Nicholson has experience of both sides of the Q School coin having successfully handled the pressure to win back a Tour Card in 2017, only to suffer the heartache of missing out two years later.

The Asset assesses how players must cope with the unpredictable nature of the event while he also has some strong words on Raymond van Barneveld's motivations for trying to earn his place back in the PDC ranks after a year away from the sport.

Shocks and surprises

Q School has proven to be something of a lottery. Just think of how well Glen Durrant has done over the last two years in PDC darts and become part of the elite but even he was just one double away from missing out on a Tour Card.

To a lot of players this is the biggest challenge of the lot and it has produced many great players over the years – not least Gerwyn Price – and we should always be thankful for that. But if anyone walks in and thinks they’re guaranteed to win a Tour Card then they could be in for a shock.

I’ve been there twice – once successfully and once without so I have experience from both perspectives. I walked in with the same attitude of leaving my ego at the door and focussing on trying to make the room smaller, especially last year.

You walk in there and see hundreds of players battling and for many people that’s pretty intimidating. How do you get through them all? You don’t. You only have to beat a select few of them on one day or the majority of people you face over the four days. You’ve got to stay in your zone and focus on that.

Knowing what we do now about Jason Lowe, it’s no surprise in hindsight why he won a Tour Card on day one last year. He’s the type of guy who strolls in without a care in the world and does his thing without worrying about anyone else. And that’s the mindset that this year’s hopefuls have to try and use.

What most Q School players have in common is that their confidence of coming through big field events is pretty low.

They’ve either just lost their cards after difficult seasons or are just very inexperienced of such an environment. That’s why someone like Damon Heta was able to cruise through last year because that was his first attempt after an outstanding 2019 in which he won the Brisbane Darts Masters and was so successful on the DPA Tour.

Egos have landed

You are on a level playing field with everyone on day one and you could draw absolutely anyone. You’ve got to leave any reputation you do have at the door and not think about issues like having a target on your back or whether you should be miles better than anyone else.

There are many different types of people going to Q School and I’m not going to lie, there will be some huge egos going through the door, such as Arron Monk. They genuinely believe they’ll get through due to their confidence levels but there are others who you won’t notice until they’ve won a Tour Card – like Jason Lowe last year.

Let’s be honest, there’s also the kind of players who are just turning up to give it a go and just want to beat a household name so they can brag about it down the pub or club.

Last year I was beaten by a guy on the final day of Q School who turned to me and said: “It was a real honour to play you.” That was my last chance to get my Tour Card back and he’s saying that to me?! Talk about having a big fat pinch of salt and throwing it into the wound.

I don’t think players like that really think they belong there, and that attitude won’t serve them well at all if they somehow manage to snag a tour card – and that has happened to some of them down the years.

If you don’t think you’ll belong, you won’t belong.

Above all, you’ve got to realise what you’re potentially getting yourself in for before you commit to Q School. What if you do win a Tour Card that you don’t necessarily expect to? Do you keep your job and treat darts as extra income or do you sacrifice your other career to really make it as a top player? It’s got to work for you. Jonny Clayton, for example, does a fantastic balancing act with his full-time job and his darts career but I could have never done that.

Whichever you choose, bare in mind there’s never success without sacrifice.

‘No Barney Army in Barnsley’

If Q School was the same as last year, the question mark over Raymond van Barneveld’s chances would be in bold but there can be little doubt he’ll be involved in the second stage at the very least.

There’ll be too many players scared of him because of the aura he still possesses and you’ve got to bare in mind some of his opponents will be averaging around 60! He can average that with two darts!

The second stage will be tougher but the biggest question for me is why he’s doing this? He’s been quoted in the press about how his hunger is back after a year out from the game but I’m not convinced by that yet.

The answer won’t be in the Q School pudding either – it’ll be in the floor tournament pudding in places like Barnsley and Wigan. When he has to go to those small events many times a year without any crowds or razzamatazz and trying to earn ranking money to climb up from the very bottom, where’s his hunger going to be then? That’s what I want to know.

Everyone is hungry at Q School but if in four months’ time he’s on the tour being drubbed by seeded stars like Gerwyn Price and Ian White in the early rounds for example – or even the lesser-known ones who are playing much better these days – his confidence could be on the floor quickly.

You don’t get a Barney Army in Barnsley to spur you on.

It’s a very long road back to where he wants to be. A Tour Card doesn’t suddenly get you a place in all the big TV majors – he’s got to earn that privilege the hard way.

To be a stage player again he’s got to play well on the floor, and if he can’t do that, he won’t even get the chance.

This is why I’m still not convinced ‘hunger’ is why he’s doing this.

When he does these interviews – like the one with the PDC recently - he tells you more than he thinks he is, such as how he’d expected 2020 to be full of exhibitions and other projects post retirement.

With those things not happening, it’s sparked him to go back to Q School so maybe the decision is predominantly down to money. Without much of that coming in, he has to find ways of earning and it probably won’t be the lucrative exhibition circuit for a while.

Tournament prize money and playing with sponsorship is his best way of making a living at the moment and I think that outweighs the ‘hunger’ narrative.

I have no problem with that whatsoever because I’ve had many a player coming up to me down the years saying how much they hate the sport and only do it for money. They’re mercenaries trying to make a living.

If Barney just came out and said: “I’ve got some hunger back but I really want to make some money” he would get applauded for being honest. I will rest my case and applaud him if I see hunger and drive from him on the floor in several months’ time – but I won’t be doing that yet.

Format changes

Last year when I went to Q School with Jeff Smith, the queue to get in was snaking outside the door, and when we finally got inside the refreshment queue was about 80m long!

The ever-growing popularity of Q School meant its current format of getting everyone under one roof had become unsustainable. There were too many people of different ability levels. If you have a 28 handicap in golf, you can’t go to European Tour Q School, so darts shouldn’t be any different in terms of quality control.

The PDC had no option but to change it to this new two-stage system, which still means that the ‘yellow brick road’ fairytales are possible, but ensures the business end of Q School will be streamlined for those with genuine dreams of being a Tour Card holder.

If an unlikely player does win a Tour Card but then fails to hold onto it in two years time, they will also get the advantage of going straight to the final stage of Q School and that could be huge – especially how they’ll be well seasoned by that point to the rigours of long competitive days of floor darts.

Sherrock to bounce back?

It’s not been an easy 12 months for Fallon Sherrock, who had so much to look forward to this time last year.

After her World Championship heroism, she’d drawn with Glen Durrant in front of a huge Premier League in Nottingham and had also been selected to play in the lucrative World Series events during the summer – but all those plans were obviously blown out of the water.

Having failed to return to Ally Pally, it feels as if she’s back to square one but at least that means there doesn’t seem to be the same pressure on her shoulders as there was at the 2020 Q School.

I’d love her to win a card and join Lisa Ashton on Tour, which she’s well capable of doing but in such a big field, it may depend on her draw as it does for so many other players.

Best bets

I’ve been pitching for Jason Askew to get a Tour Card for a few weeks now. I played some online games against him last year and he’s got real darting DNA. His dad is a two-time World Championship semi-finalist and while there’s no guarantee he’ll go on to emulate him, I’ve been very impressed from what I’ve seen.

Colin Monk’s son Arron is also in Q School and he’s also got a similarly strong chance to prevail at around 9/2 and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them both on tour this year.

Arron is good enough to beat anyone but just needs to get the mental side of his game right and although Jason isn’t the finished article yet, he’s definitely getting there. If he doesn’t get through then he’ll be a real danger man on the Challenge Tour without a shadow of a doubt.

Alan Soutar of Scotland has been playing a lot of online darts and I think he’s ready to cross the bridge from being a solid BDO player to the PDC.

Alan has got bags of experience as a Scottish international and now that the BDO is no more, he’s really been knuckling down to take the next step in his own career having done so much for the youth scene north of the border.

As for European Q School, the majority of the bigger names like Rowby-John Rodriguez, Martin Schindler and Benito van de Pas are in this position due to inconsistency on tour over the past couple of seasons and if they can sort that out, they can perhaps become top 50 players again.

Out of everyone on that list I’d say Schindler has the best chance of going through because of his work ethic and his ability levels, which are higher than everyone else in my opinion.

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