Basel draw pits Springer against Wellinger, 29 names for the Grand Slam & Ayres unbeaten

Darts news from 8 October 2026: the Swiss Darts Trophy draw with Springer against Wellinger, 29 names for the Grand Slam, Ayres wins all five matches.

Today's key stories

On Thursday the PDC published the draw and the schedule for the Swiss Darts Trophy. The penultimate tournament of the European Tour begins on Friday at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, world number one Luke Humphries goes into the draw as the top seed, Niko Springer meets Swiss player Roman Wellinger in the opening round. Also on Thursday the state of the field for the Grand Slam of Darts was updated: 29 of the 48 places have been filled, Gabriel Clemens is in, Jonny Clayton and Gary Anderson are not so far.

Basel: Humphries as number one, Springer against Wellinger

The Swiss Darts Trophy is the 14th of 15 tournaments on the European Tour 2026. It runs from Friday to Sunday at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, the field comprises 48 players and the total prize money is 230,000 pounds, 35,000 pounds of which goes to the winner.

Friday brings 16 first-round matches in two sessions, the 16 seeded players only enter on Saturday in round two. As top seed, Humphries faces the winner of the match between Kevin Doets and Nick Kenny. Defending champion Stephen Bunting is seeded seventh and takes on the winner of Jeffrey de Graaf against Sietse Lap. Michael van Gerwen (number five) awaits Mensur Suljovic or Gyorgy Jehirszki, Gian van Veen (number two) the winner of the duel between Springer and Wellinger.

The first-round matches on Friday, afternoon session from 13.00:

Niels Zonneveld - Bradley Brooks
William O'Connor - Jani Haavisto
Mensur Suljovic - Gyorgy Jehirszki
Sebastian Bialecki - Karel Sedlacek
Niko Springer - Roman Wellinger
Joe Cullen - Tom Bissell
Cameron Menzies - Cristo Reyes
Rob Cross - Mario Vandenbogaerde

Evening session from 19.00:

Andrew Gilding - Stefan Bellmont
Jeffrey de Graaf - Sietse Lap
Dave Chisnall - Alan Soutar
Raymond van Barneveld - Maik Kuivenhoven
Dirk van Duijvenbode - Bruno Stoeckli
Michael Smith - Rob Owen
Damon Heta - Alex Fehlmann
Kevin Doets - Nick Kenny

For Michael Smith it is a return to the European Tour. Luke Littler is not in the draw, he is skipping the remaining tournaments of the European series. Four names in the drawn field are replacements: Karel Sedlacek, Alan Soutar, Rob Owen and Nick Kenny stand where Gerwyn Price, Gary Anderson, Nathan Aspinall and Ryan Joyce were originally entered – the background to the four withdrawals can be found here.

Four places went to Swiss qualifiers. Stefan Bellmont, Wellinger, Bruno Stoeckli and Alex Fehlmann are all in the main draw: Bellmont against Gilding, Wellinger against Springer, Stoeckli against van Duijvenbode, Fehlmann against Heta. That means each of the four host nation qualifiers meets a Tour Card holder in the opening round; we have already covered all the results and statistics from qualifying and the draw for the last 128.

In sporting terms, Basel is about more than the title. After the tournament in Switzerland only the Dutch Darts Championship remains before the European Tour Order of Merit determines the 32 starters for the European Championship in Dortmund. Several players in the field are within reach of the qualifying cut-off; Bunting defends his Basel title from a position outside the top 32.

Grand Slam of Darts: 29 places confirmed

For the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton, 29 of the 48 places have been filled. Those qualified include world champion Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Ross Smith, Gian van Veen, Gerwyn Price, James Wade, Nathan Aspinall and Michael van Gerwen. In addition there are the title winners of the secondary series: Sebastian Bialecki as leader of the Development Tour Order of Merit, Joe Hunt as leader of the Challenge Tour, Paolo Nebrida as Asian champion and Adam Sevada as winner of the North American Championship. Beau Greaves, Cam Crabtree and Jan Schmidt are in via the World Youth Finals.

From the group of this season's tournament winners, Wessel Nijman, Josh Rock, Luke Woodhouse and Krzysztof Ratajski have qualified via the European Tour, Chris Dobey, Cameron Menzies, Ryan Searle, Jermaine Wattimena, Rob Cross, Kevin Doets, Andrew Gilding, Jeffrey de Graaf, Karel Sedlacek and Gabriel Clemens via the Players Championships. Jonny Clayton and Gary Anderson are not in the field so far.

The remaining 19 places go to the winner and the runner-up of the European Championship, one place from the Women's Series, the winners of the PDC Nordic & Baltic Championship and the ANZ Premier League as well as further tournament winners in the order of the Order of Merit. The Tour Card Holder Qualifier in Leicester rounds things off.

Darts in Germany

The Basel draw offers two talking points for German darts. Niko Springer, the best German in the yearly ranking, opens against Roman Wellinger, who played his way into the field via the host nation qualifier. The winner meets Gian van Veen on Saturday. Martin Schindler is seeded 15th and therefore only enters on Saturday, his opponent comes from the match between Joe Cullen and Tom Bissell. No other German players are in the draw.

Gabriel Clemens, on the other hand, has a secure place at the Grand Slam. Thanks to his Players Championship title, the player from Saarland is one of the 29 already confirmed starters in Wolverhampton and is so far the only German in the field. For Schindler, Springer and Ricardo Pietreczko, the route to Wolverhampton now only runs via the European Championship in Dortmund or the closing Tour Card Holder Qualifier.

MODUS Super Series: Ayres wins all five matches

In Group C of the MODUS Super Series, Danny Ayres stayed unbeaten on Thursday. The Englishman won all five meetings and dropped only seven legs along the way, the closest being the 4:3 against Conor Heneghan. Heneghan follows in second place with four wins, beaten only by Ayres. Alex Spellman, Harrison Leigh and Oliver Mitchell won two matches each, Andreas Harrysson finished without a point after five defeats.

Heneghan - Ayres 3:4
Mitchell - Heneghan 0:4
Heneghan - Leigh 4:2
Ayres - Leigh 4:1
Ayres - Spellman 4:1
Harrysson - Mitchell 3:4

WDF Asia-Pacific Cup: first titles in Ulaanbaatar

In Ulaanbaatar the 21st WDF Asia-Pacific Cup was officially opened on Thursday with an opening ceremony and a parade of teams. It is the first edition of the competition in Mongolia. The first decisions came on the same day: the hosts won the titles in the Girls' Pairs and the Youth Open Pairs, among the women the Japanese pair prevailed. In the Girls' Singles, Australia's Alyssa Moody won. The team events and the adult singles competitions are still running.

What's coming up tomorrow

The Swiss Darts Trophy starts on Friday with the first round: eight matches in the afternoon session from 13.00, eight more from 19.00. The MODUS Super Series continues Group C on Friday with an afternoon and an evening session, before the finals night on Saturday. In Ulaanbaatar, the Asia-Pacific Cup moves into the next day of competition with the remaining events.