When every Scottish darts player begins their PDC World Championship including Musselburgh duo Anderson and Beveridge
The annual festive darts tournament has already gotten underway at the Alexandra Palace.
As the 2026 World Darts Championship commences, two-time winner Gary Anderson and debutant Darren Beveridge are preparing to take to the oche at the Ally Pally.
A total of 128 players have their eye on the Sid Waddell Trophy as three weeks of tantalising tungsten tension begins. Teen sensation Luke Littler is the favourite to win back-to-back World Titles, after he defeated Michael van Gerwen in last year’s final.
Five Scots are competing in this year’s competition, including Musselburgh’s very own Anderson and Beveridge. The latter got a message from his sporting hero ahead of his first ever Ally Pally appearance. Peter Wright, Cameron Menzies and Alan Soutar complete the Scottish contingent.
Musselburgh debutant faces former Matchplay Champ at the Ally Pally
Gary Anderson will kick-off his tournament in Saturday’s afternoon session against Adam Hunt. ‘The Flying Scotsman’ won the competition twice in 2015 and 2016, but has failed to get past the fourth round in the last three tournaments.
Debutant Darren Beveridge will kick his tournament off against ‘The Dreammaker’ Dimitri Van den Bergh. The Belgian won the World Matchplay title in 2020 and is currently 23rd in the PDC rankings. Their match will take place in Sunday’s evening session.
Cameron Menzies and Peter Wright will both kick off their campaigns in Monday’s afternoon session as they face Charlie Manby and Noa-Lynn van Leuven respectively. Everyone’s favourite fireman, Alan Soutar will face Finland’s Teemu Harju in the first match of the day on Tuesday.
Here’s a look at every Scottish player’s opener and when it’s scheduled to kick off (times are subject to change depending on length of other matches):
Gary Anderson vs Adam Hunt (Saturday, 13th Dec - 3:30pm)
Darren Beveridge vs Dimitri Van den Bergh (Sunday, 14th Dec - 8:00pm)
Cameron Menzies vs Charlie Manby (Monday, 15th Dec - 1:30pm)
Peter Wright vs Noa-Lynn van Leuven (Monday, 15th Dec - 3:30pm)
Alan Soutar vs Teemu Harju (Tuesday, 16th Dec - 12:30pm)
Beveridge receives inspirational message from Hearts star
The Musselburgh-born arrow-smith will be hoping to emulate the recent success of his beloved Heart of Midlothian at the World Championships. Gorgie striker, Claudio Braga sent him a message via Instagram wishing him good luck before the competition. He said, “hi Darren, hope you’re all good! It’s Claudio Braga here, I just want to wish you very good luck for the Darts Championship, kill it!”
The 33-year old is currently 75th in the PDC Rankings and qualified for the tournament through the PDC Order of Merit after a strong 2024-25 ProTour season. For his day job he works for Bruntons Aero Products, a big name in the Aerospace industry, but whether he’ll be flying high at the Ally Pally remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, fellow Musselburgh boy Gary Anderson has stated that there’s plenty life left in the old dog yet ahead of his 17th appearance at the PDC World Championships. He told Sky Sports: “it would be nice to win one more title. Usually I'm quite happy. A couple of weeks back, I was quite happy to go you know what? I've done my job on that. Then people started talking, 'oh, he's done, he's this, he'll never do it' and that fires me back up, and I can't stop playing. I keep carrying on.