Matthew Edgar previews the UK Open and picks his ones to watch at Butlin’s Minehead Resort from February 28 to March 2.
The unique multi-board tournament will see PDC Tour Card Holders competing across three days of action alongside PDC Amateur Qualifiers and top players from the 2024 Winmau Challenge Tour and Development Tour Orders of Merit.
The 160-player field will see Tour Card Holders enter across the first four rounds, based on their PDC Order of Merit position following the Players Championship double-header in Rosmalen.
The sport’s biggest names will begin their title bids in round four, including reigning champion Dimitri Van den Bergh, world No 1 Luke Humphries and world champion Luke Littler.
Former champions Michael van Gerwen, Nathan Aspinall, Peter Wright, Danny Noppert, James Wade, Gary Anderson and Andrew Gilding will also enter the event at the fourth round stage.
Edgar, nicknamed ‘Prime Time’, appeared on the latest edition of the Darts Show Podcast with Abigail Davies and host Emma Paton to discuss his picks at the tournament, which is often referred to as the “FA Cup of darts”.
Beau Greaves
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Speaking on Love The Darts, Matthew Edgar and Abigail Davies look ahead to Beau Greaves’ debut at the UK Open
“Challenge Tour, Development Tour, Women’s Series – she’s top of all those three orders of merit with £17,000 worth of income so far. If you add in the WDF stuff, then she’s the second most money earned by any darts player in 2025 so far and she’s playing so well. We’ve seen her play on the ProTour now. She had a great game against Josh Rock but she’s got her hands full against Stefan Bellmont. He’s a quality player and it will be No 2 vs No 2 on the Challenger Tour. Bellmont was a recent semi-finalist on the ProTour.
“Beau is going to be one of those who will be feared and supported well by the crowd. She has the capabilities of actually winning the tournament.”
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Greaves dismantled Cameron Menzies 5-1 to secure her first win at last year’s Grand Slam of Darts
Ryan Searle
Edgar would love to see Ryan Seale pick up a major title
“He always plays well at the start of the year. I’ve never spoken to Ryan in all the years that I’ve know him and be interested in darts as much as he is now. He’s now speaking quite a lot in interviews about how he doesn’t really put effort in, and he’s right, he doesn’t! We’ve shared hotel rooms together and I’d be up at 9 o’clock, we’ve got a board up in the room, I’d be practising and he’ll be playing Mario Kart. We’d get to 11 o’clock and I’d be saying ‘we need to get downstairs because it’s starting in an hour’ and he’ll still be playing Mario Kart. Then he’d roll out of bed, have a wash, get ready, go down and hit 100 averages. It’s like bare minimum, but high output. So what’s he going to be like when he starts putting effort in?
“He’s actually spending time in the practice room, so I’m really interested to see where this goes for Ryan. I’d love to see him pick up a title.”
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Seale pinned this stunning 164 checkout on the way to defeating Matt Campbell in the second round of the World Darts Championship
Josh Rock
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Josh Rock stunned Michael van Gerwen with a nine-darter at the Grand Slam of Darts before Van Gerwen went on to win 10-8 in a classic
“I’m really interested in Josh at the minute. He burst on the scene and then last year I noticed a real technical flaw started to creep in. When he drew the darts back, he froze. He was messing with the dart in hand, the fingers rolling on the dart, and I was starting to think he was developing dartitis. Then I watched him at the start of this year and it’s gone, it’s fluent, it’s free, it looks nice, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Josh Rock goes back to what we saw a couple of years ago.
“I think he’s going to have a great season.”
Connor Scutt
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Connor Scutt hit successive ton plus finishes to dominate Ben Robb in their World Darts Championship opener
“When we’re talking about quality needed, flexibility, and the ability to play for a long period of time, I have never seen anyone so dedicated to practice and also the quality at which he plays with. I’ve never seen someone hit so many 180s in my life, and I’ve been around players like Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor, Luke Humphries, Ryan Searle – big 180 hitters. It was unbelievable. I think he could be a real dark horse in this one.”
Dom Taylor
“I was covering the ProTour last week and I didn’t cover any of his games until he got to the semi-finals. He was averaging 103 for the day – for the day! I think he can do that on the big stage. I’m interested to see how he gets on because he is going to be feared.”
Where does the Premier League head next?
The Premier League continues with Night 4 in Exeter tonight and then Night 5 in Brighton on Thursday, March 6 Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen lock horns in a repeat of the 2023 Premier League final on Night Five, with Luke Littler or Chris Dobey awaiting the winner in the last four. Watch Night 5 of Premier League Darts, The Brighton Centre, live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports+ stream with NOW.
Sky Sports will once again be the home of the Premier League in 2025, with every night exclusively live along with the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and more! Stream darts and more top sport with NOW