Arno Merk, Arron Monk and Jamie Hughes were among the first 32 players to make it through PDC Qualifying Schools First Stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opening day of the 2026 PDC Qualifying Schools saw First Stage begin in Milton Keynes and Kalkar, with over 900 players competing this week for the chance to become permanent fixtures on the PDC circuit over the next two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First Stage, taking place from January 5-7, sees players from across the globe attempting to qualify to compete in the Final Stage, where Tour Cards will be on offer from January 8-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World Championship star and PDC Europe Super League winner Merk was a leading name to advance to Final Stage, winning four straight games to secure his status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former World Youth Champion Monk was another among the 32 names to secure their progression to Final Stage, as he saw off three-time World Champion John Part on the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hughes, a former winner of a European Tour title, also secured his spot in the Final Stage, as well as talented Irishman McGuirk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other notable names to advance to Final Stage include Dutchman Jimmy van Schie, Croatian World Cup star Romeo Grbavac, and PDC Nordic & Baltic Champion Teemu Harju.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First Stage will be held across three days, with the last 16 players from each day qualifying automatically for Final Stage, while the remaining places in Final Stage – featuring 128 players at each venue \u2013 are decided from a Ranking List, with one point being awarded per win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At any point during Qualifying School, if two or more players are tied on points, they will be separated in the Ranking List by (in order until they can be split): leg difference, legs won, DartConnect average based on their totals in their matches. Results in all matches played at the relevant stage are included in this countback.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n RESULTS European Qualifying School Arno Merk, Arron Monk and Jamie Hughes were among the first 32 players to make it through PDC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-7597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed.jpg",2002,1127,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed-1536x865.jpg",1536,865,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed.jpg",2002,1127,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arno-Merk_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7599,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7597\/revisions\/7599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
UK Qualifying School
First Stage
Last 32<\/strong>: Tommy Lishman 5-3 James Evans-Bradford; Martin Grearson 5-2 Lloyd Walker; Arron Monk 5-2 Daniel Ayres; Jamie Chaplin 5-0 John Henderson; Robbie Martin 5-0 Keelan Kay; Derek Coulson 5-4 Killian McCormack; Shaun Fox 5-3 Joe Croft; Simon Stevenson 5-0 Damien Grimes; Tom Lonsdale 5-3 Jake Eichen; Shane McGuirk 5-4 Steve Beaton; Danny Goddard 5-1 Charlie Large; Tom Sykes 5-2 Joseph Heywood; Lewis Pride 5-1 Jamie Tilley; Jamie Hughes 5-2 Paul Lewis; James Welding 5-1 Jamie Kelling; Llew Bevan 5-2 James Howard Hughes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First Stage Day One
Last 32<\/strong>: Patrick Maat 5-3 Michael De Meyer; Benjamin Pratnemer 5-4 Jeffrey de Zwaan; Jimmy van Schie 5-1 Kris Mievis; Danny Blom 5-1 Luitsen Elzinga; Stefan Dees 5-2 Jarno Bottenberg; Arno Merk 5-3 Michael Hurtz; Pascal Rupprecht 5-0 Mitja Gustorf; Danny Jansen 5-1 Tomislav Rosandic; Florian Preis 5-0 Jiri Brejcha; Romeo Grbavac 5-2 Gilbert van der Meijden; Simon Teysen 5-4 Brian Raman; Marvin Kraft 5-4 Sietse Lap; Filip Bereza 5-0 Michael Van De Ven; Daniel Klose 5-1 Jose Justicia; Teemu Harju 5-4 Jeffrey Keen; Paul Krohne 5-2 Dennis Van Bergem<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"