Gian van Veen (Picture: PDC Europe)

Who will be the title winners in darts this winter? Paul Nicholson looks back at 2023 to predict potential champions in the coming months

By Paul Nicholson

Darts

Thu September 14, 2023 · 2y ago

The 2023 darts season is heading towards it’s hectic winter schedule of televised majors but which players outside the usual suspects have shown enough promise to pick up a big title?

Paul Nicholson picks five players that are ticking most of the right boxes in his latest column.

Gian van Veen

When Gian van Veen first started catching everyone’s attention around 18 months ago, we simply thought ‘another very good Dutch darts player’. I was in that camp and thought he’d go on to become a solid tour pro.

However, there’s something else about this boy, who has bounced back from struggles with dartitis in the past.

If you think about what he’s also been doing on the Development Tour, he could easily go on to achieve the kind of things that Luke Humphries is doing now in the next few seasons. Or even more!

In less than a two-year period since joining the main tour, he’s come a long way very quickly and getting himself in the mould for major contention earlier than most of his contemporaries.

Now the following stats from Gian this season should blow your mind.

Bare in mind a player of Gerwyn Price’s ilk has played 138 games in all competitions in 2023 and won 101 of them – a win percentage of 73%.

Including the Development Tour, Gian has played 229 matches and his win percentage is 76.86% and he’s averaging 94! It’s an enormous sample size that proves he is consistently an elite performer.

Younger players do thrive by combining Development Tour with the Pro Tour as it helps them stay at a winning sharpness level and that’s exactly what Gian is doing. It could be a very exciting few months for him.

He may lack vast televised experience but aside from the Players Championship Finals last year and the UK Open back in March, he’s had enough action on the stage of the European Tour to ready himself for more tournaments with crowds. He’s averaged over 114 in one match on the European Tour this season!

He’s averaged over 110 four times in all competitions this year. Not many people can say that. These are Michael van Gerwen style numbers! He is exciting many fans when he plays.

His temperament is always so cool and it’s no wonder he’ll be contesting the World Youth Championship final with Luke Littler. What a final that will be!

Dirk van Duijvenbode

Whereas Gian van Veen has played an extraordinary amount of darts this year, Dirk van Duijvenbode has reached a point in his career where he’s becoming more selective and strategic with the tournaments he enters.

I think a lot of players will follow his approach in years to come because his performances are showing that it works.

Recently we had a run of three Players Championship tournaments in Barnsley and a World Series Finals qualifier. He opted to miss the first two Players Championship events but then played in the third and the qualifier, which he targeted the most.

It paid off and he now has a chance to go one better than he did in Amsterdam 12 months ago when Gerwyn Price pipped him in a deciding leg.

He is still waiting for his first European Tour title but he has won three times on the floor this year and is genuinely confident of getting over the line in a big stage tournament.

He’s more ready than ever before, has more energy and manages it better so he doesn’t peak too soon.

Joe Cullen

Joe Cullen is the highest ranked player – at number 11 - yet to win a tournament this year but I feel that’s going to change in the coming months.

Some say his form has dipped since his exclusion from the Premier League but I don’t subscribe to that theory. He’s still averaging over 95 this season across 62 matches on the floor – that puts him in the top 16 – whilst he also has 181 x 180s! He hit just one too many for that to be funny.

Joe Cullen isn’t used to not winning a title in a calendar year so he’ll really be gunning for one before 2023 is over and preferably a big one.

Daryl Gurney

Daryl Gurney has played over 100 games at an average that exceeds 95 this year which shows he’s getting back to his major contending levels of old.

He’s still going under the radar because other players are hitting the headlines ahead of him but he’s made a couple of semi-finals that have got my attention, including one on the European Tour, so this is a very good season without a title.

If he does pick up a trophy before the year is out, it really wouldn’t be a shock.

OUTSTANDING FROM GURNEY! 🤯

Daryl Gurney back to his best as he averages 104.43 in dumping out Gary Anderson!

📺 https://t.co/DTtJ9feFOI | #WMDarts R2 pic.twitter.com/F9osqXDVzx
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) July 18, 2023

His personal circumstances have changed this year because he’s in a new relationship and sometimes when that happens it can have a positive impact on performance because you feel happier or have more stability.

I really think we can expect big things from Daryl and it could happen at the World Grand Prix, where he’s a former champion who plays better double start darts than many others.

He’s a better player now than when he won it, so who’s to say he won’t triumph again.

Daryl is still a great player, he just got overtaken by others grabbing the headlines in recent times. It’ll be his turn again soon.

Krzysztof Ratajski

Back in April I flagged up Krzysztof in a similar column to this to predict title winners in the middle stage of the season. A few days later, he picked up his first title since 2021.

He recently triumphed on the European Tour for the first time in four years and is currently averaging over 95 for the year.

Krzysztof is ranked 22 in the world right now but he’s certainly not playing like someone outside of the top 16!

He’s doing things now that he hasn’t done for years and is getting the rewards for the immense patience he’s shown during some lean times in his career.

He’s never stopped working hard in the background and now he could get the fruits of his labour in spectacular fashion in the coming months.

It was funny to see him hit a nine-darter with his practice throws ahead of the recent European Tour final against Stephen Bunting and that’s just an indicator of how relaxed he is going into a pressure environment.