Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

John Henderson aiming for World Championship place

John Henderson is trying to qualify for the World Championship for the ninth successive year
John Henderson is trying to qualify for the World Championship for the ninth successive year

John Henderson is determined to extend his proud record of qualifying for the World Darts Championship to nine straight years.

Today represents the Highlander’s last chance to reach the 2022 event, which gets underway at the Alexandra Palace next month.

Henderson is playing in the tour card qualifier in Barnsley, a knockout competition which sees all the PDC tour card holders who have not yet qualified for the World Championship, battle for the final two spots.

The Huntly thrower has qualified for nine of the last 10 World Championships, including the last eight in succession.

Henderson achieved that by either being in the top 32 on the two-year ranking list or being in the top 64 on the one-year Pro Tour order of merit list.

But this year the 48-year-old’s ranking has slipped to 46 and he failed to get the desired results in Pro Tour tournaments.

Henderson said: “The World Championship is the one tournament at the start of the year that every player wants to play in.

“Everyone will be trying their hardest to get there.

“There are players who have been in the qualifiers for a number of years and haven’t made it through yet.

“There are players looking to keep tour cards and I’ve been at the Ally Pally for the last eight years and I want to extend that.

“But it will be hard, hopefully I can play well and get that place.

“My results haven’t showed that I’ve been playing well, but I have been playing well and not getting the results has been disappointing.

“Hopefully I can get there and give myself a kickstart for next year and move back up the rankings.”

Doubles are key for the Highlander

Earlier this month Henderson was in action in the Grand Slam of Darts.

Although he failed to progress from his group he takes encouragement from the experience ahead of the qualifier.

The money he earned at the Grand Slam also looks like it will secure his tour card for next year even if he doesn’t qualify for the World Championship.

The two finalists at the qualifier earn a place at the World Championship and

Henderson added: “A few missed doubles have cost me.

“In the Grand Slam the scoring was there, but I missed doubles.

“If I can tidy that up I’ll give myself a good chance of getting through.

“It was good to get back on the TV stage and get three games.

“OK I didn’t get the results I was hoping for, I had chances that I didn’t take.

“Getting beat 5-0 by Joe (Cullen) and 5-1 by Michael van Gerwen doesn’t look great but I had chances at doubles in most legs.”