By Ryan Segal

July means many things to many people – but here at Unicorn HQ, it means we’re packing our bags and heading up to Blackpool for the World Matchplay.

Widely considered the second biggest major in the sport, behind the World Championship, the tournament sees the Top 16 in the Main Order of Merit and the Top 16 in the Pro Tour Order of Merit travel to Lancashire to battle it out for the Phil Taylor Trophy.

Four representatives from Team Unicorn will grace the stage at the Winter Gardens, with three coming from the Main OoM, and one from the Pro Tour OoM.

Starting from highest seed to lowest, here’s how they look going into the event:

James Wade goes into the event as the highest seeded member of Team Unicorn, going in as 9th Seed (despite moving up to 8th in the world since the draw).

The Machine has had a solid 2025 to date, with the highlights of his year coming in Minehead at the UK Open, where he finished as runner-up in the ‘FA Cup of darts’, and his winning of Players Championship 19, which represented a first title since 2022.

He can consider this tournament a free shot in a sense, having already defended his money from 2023 just by qualifying.

He averaged higher than Chris Dobey in that particular encounter, but was defeated 8-10 by the Geordie.

As for last year, it made for much better reading, with James reaching the Semi-Final, losing to the eventual champion, Luke Humphries.

The 2007 Champion gets his campaign underway in the maiden match of the entire tournament, facing Joe Cullen, in a tie scheduled to get underway at approximately 19:15 BST on Saturday.

Gary Anderson, like Wade, is a former Champion at the Winter Gardens, winning the 2018 title in an epic contest against now-Unicorn teammate Mensur Suljovic.

He goes into the tournament seeded 13th in the world (but like James, has moved up a spot since the draw due to his performance in the Baltic Sea Darts Open).

It’s been a good year so far for The Flying Scotsman, mainly a result of his exploits on the European Tour – which is a sentence that seemed far fetched just a few years ago.

He became the first player to retain the European Darts Grand Prix, doing so with an emphatic 8-0 win over Andrew Gilding, whilst reaching the Final at the recent Baltic Sea Darts Open, and the Semi-Final at the European Darts Trophy earlier in the year.

He does have some money to defend at this year’s staging of the event, as two years ago he reached the second round.

He overcame Dave Chisnall in his opener, before a 102 average in R2 only proved good enough to win four legs in defeat to Daryl Gurney.

Last year it was a similar story of a good performance not quite being enough, with an average just shy of 99 not enough to overcome Michael Smith.

The 54-year-old kicks off the action for Sunday evening’s session, facing Luke Woodhouse at approximately 19:15 BST.

The third player from Team Unicorn, and the final one whose entry comes courtesy of the main OoM, is Ross Smith.

Unlike the two compatriots before him, however, Smudger remains today where he was when the draw was done, at 14th in the world.

The Kent based thrower has had a good year to date – including one of the greatest Players Championship performances of all time, which saw him hit 2 x 9 dart legs and win 24 straight legs en route to the title.

Ross, like James, has defended his winnings from two years ago by virtue of his qualification, having lost to Dimitri Van den Bergh in the opening round in 2023.

The links to The Machine don’t stop there, however, as they faced off at last year’s tournament, with James getting the win on that occasion.

Ross closes out the opening round action, playing in the final game of the Monday evening session against Josh Rock, scheduled to get underway at approximately 22:15 BST.

And last, but certainly by no means least, is Cameron Menzies.

Cammy’s qualification for his first Matchplay comes via the Pro Tour OoM, in which he sits 4th following a breakthrough year and a half.

Having established himself as a player to watch last year, in a campaign which included his first professional title, The Scot has since kicked on further in 2025, reaching two European Tour Quarter-Finals and picking up a second Players Championship crown.

There’s no history to speak of in this competition for Cammy – as is made obvious by the mention of this being his first time in the event.

He takes to the stage straight after James, facing Danny Noppert at approximately 20:15 on Saturday night.

And that’s the who’s who for Team Unicorn in Blackpool – The format starts at first to 10 legs in R1, and proceeds to 11 in R2, 16 in the QF, 17 in the SF, and 18 in the F – All of that caveated with the fact the format extends in each round if both players reach within a leg of the starting target.

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