James Wade ended a decade-long wait for his third European Tour title at the Flanders Darts Trophy on Sunday, defeating Ross Smith 8-4 in Antwerp with a 99.10 average and a 60 per cent checkout rate. The 43-year-old's run to the title included victories over Jim Long, Rob Cross, Danny Noppert and Damon Heta, highlighted by a 101.59 average against Cross and a 6-0 whitewash of Noppert.
The £35,000 ranking prize lifted Wade above Michael van Gerwen to sixth on the PDC Order of Merit. It was his third PDC title of 2026 across three different environments: he began the season by beating Nathan Aspinall to win Players Championship 1, then secured his maiden regular World Series title at the Australian Darts Masters in August, before completing the set on the European Tour in Belgium. After missing out on the 2026 Premier League despite reaching the UK Open and World Matchplay finals the previous campaign, his case for a return in 2027 is becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss.
On Episode 10 of the DartsNews Podcast, host Kieran Wood was joined by regular co-host Nicolas Gayer and special guest Samuel Gill to discuss Wade's resurgence. Wood believes Wade has done enough to return next year. "I think he will," Wood said. "Obviously, it's not confirmed, but there have been rumours that it could be an extended format of the Premier League. Hopefully anyway, because I think we're all sick of what it is at the moment. If there are more players, maybe going up to 10, I don't see how you can leave James Wade out given what he's done, not just this year but last year as well. I think he was probably the unluckiest player to miss out on this year, so I don't really see how he can miss out in 2027, if I'm honest."
Gill agreed, arguing the pool of alternatives is thin. "I don't think there are many players in as good form as James, to be honest with you," he said. "I'd probably say Wessel Nijman might force his way in, but he needs a good major result towards the end of the year for that to happen. Then you've got other players like Nathan Aspinall and Stephen Bunting, who are kind of in and out of form. Bunting has shown good stuff in recent weeks and he's tried to up his profile, with his new book coming out in short order, which is everywhere. But I don't know how you can leave Wade out, to be honest. There aren't really that many more contenders, with Luke Littler winning everything as well. It's one of those where you've just got to pick Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, maybe Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price, and the rest are up for debate, like they are every single year."
Gill does not expect the Premier League to be expanded simply to accommodate a broader field, citing the commercial success of the existing format. "I'd definitely say James Wade," Gill continued. "You've also got to add his social media platforms to that. He's been trying his hardest to do TikTok and Twitter, to varying degrees, so he's definitely trying to show more of his personality as well. He is very good in interviews, unless you ask certain people, so he is quite entertaining anyway. In my opinion, he ticks that box. I don't think there'll be an extension to the format. I think the way Barry Hearn and Matt Porter see it is that it sells out arenas every single year and, while it continues to do that and while the demand is still there, they won't change it. But that's another debate, as opposed to James Wade being in the Premier League. I think he will definitely be in it come January next year."
Gayer was equally emphatic. "I'm 100 per cent convinced that he has to be in it and I also think that he will be," he said. "A big part of that is what you just said, Sam. There's a new momentum around James right now with social media, but also with him presenting himself from a different angle in interviews. We saw yesterday evening when he was talking about Ross Smith, with some great words about Ross and also about talking to his mum. I just feel like people are warming to James a bit more right now than was the case over the last couple of years. I think he also ticks that box and he will be in."
Wade joined the PDC in 2004 and has won major titles across three different decades. His honours include the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, UK Open, European Championship, Premier League, Masters, Championship League and World Series Finals. The glaring omission is the World Championship, where four semi-final appearances in 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2022 remain his best results. A former Premier League champion in 2009, Wade has featured in 12 editions but has not been selected since his most recent appearance in 2022.
Wood raised the question of longevity when comparing Wade to others. "In terms of ranking the all-time greats, the thing that is held against Wade is the fact that he's never won the World Championship," Wood said. "How much would you say that longevity plays into it when you compare him to someone like Adrian Lewis, for example, who burned brightly but not for as long?"
Gayer placed Wade in his top 10. "Sometimes I'm alone with this take because people often weigh World Championships very heavily and don't have him that high on their top-10 or all-time-great lists," he explained. "For me personally, James Wade is right up there. Of course, he's not a top-three or maybe a top-five player, but he's definitely in my top 10. The World Championship would make a difference, but even though he hasn't won it, it doesn't make that huge a difference for me personally because what he has done is so remarkable. He's won majors in three different decades, which is absolutely astonishing. Winning the world title at some point would change the whole thing again, but even now, for me personally, he's right up there with the greatest players of all time."
Gill drew a direct comparison with Gary Anderson, a two-time World Champion in 2015 and 2016. "Gary Anderson is James Wade with two world titles," Gill argued. "Gary Anderson is always lauded as one of the greatest players of all time, and James Wade just doesn't have those World Championships. But the Gary Anderson point is longevity. Gary Anderson has been around for years and years. You see players like Peter Wright who have been similar, but he's now falling away and potentially could fall off the tour in the next two years. James Wade has basically always been in and around the top 10. He's always been the spoiler. He's always been the player people don't want to pick for Premier Leagues and World Series events, but he keeps finding a way to do it and has done for the whole of my lifetime and even beyond. For me, he's comparable with players like that. He'll definitely be up there with Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and others in that top-five debate."
Gill added that Wade's consistency across eras sets him apart. "People have rose-tinted spectacles because they put players up there who played in the old eras and perhaps wouldn't have done it nowadays," he continued. "That's a completely different debate, but James Wade has stacked up in every single era he's been in. He's never had a tail-off. He's never really had a point where he's had to go away from darts for a little while, regroup and then start winning titles again. Whenever it seems like he's going to go away, he keeps coming back and winning. He keeps coming back and winning majors occasionally when Luke Littler doesn't. Even before Luke Littler was on the scene, he was winning majors and doing it quite regularly. You can't ignore him. He's always been that player you just can't ignore."
Gayer highlighted Wade's remarkably repeatable throwing action. "I always think the most fascinating thing about James Wade is that when you look him up on YouTube, pick a game from 20 years ago and put it right beside a current game, you see that the throw still looks identical," he said. "As a darts player myself, who is always struggling with his technique and always has another mistake in the technique popping up, it's so fascinating to see how he constantly manages to maintain that action. It's the same dart, the same barrel, the same setup, the same shirt. It's just all the same. I think that's remarkable in a sport like darts, where little changes can make big differences."
Wood believes Wade is producing career-best darts. "He's arguably playing the best darts of his career now, regardless of how long his career has been," Wood said. "It's his first European Tour title in 10 years and, a few weeks ago, he won his first-ever regular World Series event. He literally seems to be ageing like a fine wine."
Gayer added: "It was always said that James Wade doesn't really average that big. Around the 95 mark is where James Wade has pretty much always been at home throughout his career. Now he's got himself into a position where he can average over a ton and post those sorts of statistics as well. Adding that to his game could make him even more dangerous for everyone else. I'm really excited to see this version of James Wade over the next couple of years and see what he can still win and achieve in the game."
Wade will take that form into the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam, where he begins against Damon Heta, the same opponent he defeated 7-4 in the Flanders semi-finals.
