JACKPOT GETS ROLLED OVER IN ELITE CULL

SIX of last season’s Premier League darts elite have fallen by the wayside in a brutal changing of the guard for 2018.

Professional Darts Corporation chairman Barry Hearn last night revealed the 10-man field for this year’s Thursday night circus beginning on February 1 – and it’s the biggest shake-up in the competition’s 14-year history.

Two-time world champion Adrian ‘Jackpot’ Lewis (above) is the biggest name tossed overboard in the cull.

James Wade – who won the title in 2009 – Dave Chisnall, Jelle Klaasen and Kim Huybrechts have also been dropped and Phil Taylor’s retirement begins today. But Rob Cross is rewarded for his stunning rise from Hastings electrician to conqueror of world No.1 Michael van Gerwen with a debut in the 15-week competition.

And there are first call-ups for Austrian Mensur Suljovic, Northern Ireland’s Daryl Gurney and Gerwyn Price, the former Neath rugby union hooker.

Hearn, who has presided over a colossal rise in prize money on the PDC circuit, compared the sweeping changes with longserving members of a soap opera cast leaving their series.

He said: “Rob Cross was an electrician last February – I don’t know what electricians earn, but I’m going to guess at £20,000 a year. What’s he going to earn in 2018... maybe £600,000 or more?

“This is not Premier League football – they live on fantasy island. Where we have come from is the real world with ordinary working-class people with extraordinary ability and they are getting the rewards they deserve.”