The Winter Gardens World Matchplay extravaganza is hanging in the balance as to where the event will be played in 2020 due to the mystery surrounding crowd adherence to social distancing at the second biggest event on the darts calendar.

With the UK government reducing to social distancing rule to one metre in the last few days there is more scope for a reduced crowd to be allowed at the event. But with the ruling coming in just three weeks before the event, it is still unclear where the event will be staged.

It had been previously mentioned that Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena would be a ‘perfect venue’ for a backstage tournament without a crowd pleasant. Snooker had made a recent return to the venue with the Championship League events taking place in the venue.

Should the event go ahead at the Winter Gardens, the decision regarding a crowd is still to be made, but with the PDC Summer Series on the horizon, we certainly aren’t far from the return of competitive darts.