Following the conclusion of the British Classic and British Open, the final WDF UK & Ireland ranking events in the qualification period for the 2023 WDF World Championships, the WDF can provide an update on the available qualification places for Lakeside.
Last week we confirmed that Luke Littler had turned down his Lakeside invitation in order to play at the 2024 PDC World Championship.
As one of Luke's Lakeside qualification routes was through the UK & Ireland regional table, our rules state that the first port of call for replacing him in the tournament field is through the next highest ranked player only in that table.
Following the conclusion of the UK & Ireland region's events, the next highest ranked player is Barry Copeland. As Copeland has already qualified for the 2023 WDF Lakeside World Championships, Littler's replacement in the field will now be the next highest ranked eligible player from the Main Ranking Table on Monday, October 30th.
That means that there are currently four places up for grabs from the main table and as of today, September 20th, those spots are occupied by:
The WDF can also reveal that Australia's Aaron Morrison has had to turn down his invitation for personal reasons.
As Aaron qualified for Lakeside through the Australia regional ranking table, his invite will initially go to the next highest ranked player only in that table following the final Australian qualification event. That final event is the Silver-ranked Pit to Port Classic, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday, October 15th.
If that player has already qualified, the invitation will then be extended to the next highest ranked eligible player in the WDF Main Ranking Table.