The British Darts Organisation is happy to announce that the following players have been invited to compete at the 2017 Lakeside World Professional Darts Championships. Reigning BDO World Champion ‘Scotty 2 Hotty’ Scott Waites returns to “the home of world darts” as the No.6 seed, seeking a third world crown. Heading the BDO world rankings as No.1 seed for a second successive year is the current Winmau World Masters champion ‘Duzza’ Glen Durrant, with 2015 Lakeside winner ‘Scotty Dog’ Scott Mitchell seeded 2 and the 3-time former champion ‘Wolfie’ Martin Adams set to make a record 24th Lakeside appearance seeded 5. The 16 seeds for the men’s competition include 2016 Lakeside semi finalists, ‘Yozza’ Jamie Hughes and ‘Flyers’ Richard Veenstra. They are joined by three double Lakeside semi finalists, 2014 Winmau World Masters champion Martin Phillips, former WDF World Cup Singles champion ‘Sparky’ Wesley Harms and the man who lifted the BDO World Trophy upon the Lakeside stage in May, ‘the Dazzler’ Darryl Fitton. Reigning Scottish Open and German Open champion Danny Noppert will appear at Lakeside as the highest ranked debutant in 2017, seeded No.3. SEEDED PLAYERS 1 – Glen Durrant (Eng) 2 – Scott Mitchell (Eng) 3 – Danny Noppert (Ned) 4 – Jamie Hughes (Eng) 5 – Martin Adams (Eng) 6 – Scott Waites (Eng) 7 – Dean Reynolds (Wal) 8 – Darius Labanauskas (Lit) 9 – Wesley Harms (Ned) 10 – Darryl Fitton (Eng) 11 – Mark McGeeney (Eng) 12 – Brian Dawson (Eng) 13 – Jim Williams (Wal) 14 – Richard Veenstra (Ned) 15 – Geert de Vos (Bel) 16 – Martin Phillips (Wal) Eight more players (ranked 17-24) will be drawn directly into the first round. They include Welsh debutant and BDO International Open champion Nick Kenny, Scotland captain ‘the Boss’ Ross Montgomery and 3-time Lakeside finalist and crowd favourite ‘Silverback’ Tony O’Shea. 17 – Tony O’Shea (Eng) 18 – Ross Montgomery (Sco) 19 - Wouter Vaes (Ned) 20 – Nick Kenny (Wal) 21 – Pip Blackwell (Eng) 22 – James Hurrell (Eng) 23 – Conan Whitehead (Eng) 24 – Martin C Atkins (Eng) A further 16 players will compete in the Preliminary Round at the Lakeside. They feature the player ranked 25th in the BDO invitation tables and four qualifiers from the BDO world championship playoffs, to be held in Frimley Green on November 30th. Automatic places are also granted to 2016 Lakeside runner up ‘the Silencer’ Jeff Smith and the 2016 Winmau World Masters champion. Should the Winmau winner on December 4th have had already qualified, then that place will be awarded to the standby player in 26th place from the BDO invitation table, Jimmy Hendriks. 25 – Dennis Harbour (Eng) Lakeside 2016 Finalist – Jeff Smith (Can) Winmau World Masters champion 2016 / standby Jimmy Hendriks (Ned) BDO qualifier 1 BDO qualifier 2 BDO qualifier 3 BDO qualifier 4 These players will be drawn into the Preliminary Round alongside 9 international qualifiers. The winners of both the Asian qualifying tournament and the Australian Grand Prix series are joined at Lakeside by the seven players who top each of the BDO regional rankings tables, listed below. Asian qualifier – Seigo Asada (Jpn) Australian qualifier – Raymond Smith (Aus) Baltic/Scandinavian qualifier – Dennis Nilsson (Swe) British Isles qualifer – Ryan Joyce (Eng) Canadian qualifier – David Cameron (Can) Eastern European qualifier – Krzysztof Ratajski (Pol) New Zealand qualifier – Craig Caldwell (N.Z) USA qualifier – Tom Sawyer (USA) Western European qualifier – Jimmy Hendriks (Ned) (or Willem Mandigers (Ned) if Hendriks qualifies as the Winmau standby player) Invitations have also been issued for the 2017 Women’s World Championship and the BDO rankings list is topped for the fifth time in six years by ‘the Dark Destroyer’ Deta Hedman. She will be accompanied by a world class field of players that includes those who challenged her in 3 previous Lakeside finals, 2014/2015 winner ‘the Lancashire Rose’ Lisa Ashton, 3-time champion ‘from Russia with Love’ Anastasia Dobromyslova and returning for her 17th consecutive appearance after winning an historic 10th world title in January, the reigning Lakeside Champion ‘the Golden Girl’ Trina Gulliver MBE. SEEDED PLAYERS 1 – Deta Hedman (Eng) 2 – Lisa Ashton (Eng) 3 – Aileen de Graaf (Ned) 4 – Anastasia Dobromyslova (Rus) 5 – Lorraine Winstanley (Eng) 6 – Trina Gulliver MBE (Eng) 7 – Fallon Sherrock (Eng) 8 – Corrine Hammond (Aus) The unseeded players (ranked 9-13) include 2-time semi finalist ‘Racing Angel’ Sharon Prins from the Netherlands and Welsh international Rhian Griffiths who makes her BDO World Championship debut. They will be drawn against the seeded players, alongside two qualifiers from the BDO world championship playoffs in November and the 2016 Winmau World Masters champion, or world No.14 Claire Brookin if the Masters winner has already qualified. 9 – Sharon Prins (Ned) 10 – Rhian Griffiths (Wal) 11 – Anca Zijlstra (Ned) 12 – Rachel Brooks (Eng) 13 – Casey Gallagher (Eng) Winmau World Masters champion 2016 / standby Claire Brookin (Eng) BDO qualifier 1 BDO qualifier 2 In addition to the 40 men and 16 ladies heading to Frimley Green, there will be two youth players contesting their own championship decider upon the famous Lakeside stage. The BDO World Youth playoffs will be taking place on Wednesday 30th November. The draw for the 2017 Lakeside World Championships will be made on Sunday 4th December during finals day of the Winmau World Masters. The 40th BDO World Professional Darts Championships will be broadcast live on Channel 4 Television in partnership with BT Sport, on Saturday 7th to Sunday 15th January 2017. Tickets and accommodation packages are available via Lakeside's Online Ticketing Portal.
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