WITH his first major rankings title in the bag, Luke Littler goes on the hunt for another this weekend.

Warrington’s teenage sensation – the newly-crowned Grand Slam of Darts champion – is among the favourites in this weekend’s Players Championship finals in Minehead.

For Littler and the rest of the 64-player field, the tournament will be the last before the PDC World Darts Championship starts next month.

The 17-year-old’s campaign will start on Friday evening against Rob Cross – a heavyweight meeting between two of the PDC Order of Merit’s top five.

Littler and Cross regularly met in this year’s Premier League while in major ranking tournaments, they have a win apiece over each other – Littler triumphed in the World Championship semi-finals in January while Cross was victorious in the World Grand Prix first round in October.

Having risen to number five in the world rankings by way of his Grand Slam win, claiming the £120,000 top prize this weekend would see Littler move up another place ahead of the World Championships.

Littler vs Cross is among the headline attractions in Friday’s evening session and the duo are due to take to the stage at around 9pm.

All of the action from the Players Championship finals can be watched live on ITV4 throughout the weekend.

2024 Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals, schedule of play

Friday, November 22

Afternoon session (12.45-5pm UK time)

First Round

Main Stage

Gian van Veen v Scott Williams

Brendan Dolan v Martin Schindler

Ritchie Edhouse v Luke Woodhouse

James Wade v Stephen Burton

Ryan Searle v Jeffrey de Graaf

Martin Lukeman v Connor Scutt

Dave Chisnall v Joe Cullen

Stage Two

Andrew Gilding v Kevin Doets

William O'Connor v Niels Zonneveld

Krzysztof Ratajski v Madars Razma

Cameron Menzies v Jim Williams

Dirk van Duijvenbode v Callan Rydz

Ryan Joyce v Karel Sedlacek

Wesley Plaisier v Mensur Suljovic

Alan Soutar v Jermaine Wattimena

Wessel Nijman v Kim Huybrechts

Evening session (7-11pm UK time)

Main Stage

Daryl Gurney v Peter Wright

Gerwyn Price v Thibault Tricole

Chris Dobey v Nathan Aspinall

Michael van Gerwen v Ian White

Luke Littler v Rob Cross

Luke Humphries v Gabriel Clemens

Gary Anderson v Ryan Meikle

Stage Two

Damon Heta v Mervyn King

Jonny Clayton v Florian Hempel

Danny Noppert v James Hurrell

Raymond van Barneveld v Chris Landman

Stephen Bunting v Mario Vandenbogaerde

Mike De Decker v Richard Veenstra

Michael Smith v Dom Taylor

Josh Rock v Ricky Evans

Ross Smith v Dimitri Van den Bergh

Saturday, November 23

Afternoon session (12.45-5pm UK time)

Main Stage - Second Round x8

Stage Two - Second Round x8

Evening session (7-11pm UK time)

Main Stage - Third Round x4

Stage Two - Third Round x4

Sunday, November 24

Afternoon session (12.45-5pm UK time)

Quarter-finals

Evening session (7-11pm GMT)

Semi-finals

Final

Format

First and second rounds - Best of 11 legs

Third round and quarter-finals - Best of 19 legs

Semi-finals and final - Best of 21 legs