World Matchplay 2024 - The Debutants
Ritchie Edhouse
Born: 19. April 1983Lives in: Hastings, England
Darts: 23g Mission Darts
Nickname: Madhouse
Walk-on-Music: Our House (Madness)
Ritchie Edhouse is the last of the debutants who will come on stage. He will play in the last match of the first round on Monday night against Chris Dobey.
Edhouse is with 41 years the oldest of the the debutants as well. Edhouse started to play darts in 2003 and from 2014 - 2015 played in the BDO. 2014 he qualified for the World Masters and reached the third round.
Edhouse PDC career began in 2016 on the Challenge Tour. He qualified for the UK Open and three times for a European Tour event, where he reached once the third round. In the same year he got his first win on the Challenge Tour. 2017 Edhouse got a Tour Card but was not good enough in his two Tour Card years to keep it - despite a semi-final on the European Tour. So he played 2019 again on the Challenge Tour. He qualified for the PDC World Championship 2020 and lost second round. 2021 he got his Tour Card back and still has it.
While he so far never got further then the second round in the World Championship or the Players Championship finals he played himself in the fourth round of the UK Open 2023. On the European Tour and the Pro Tour at the latest in the third round Edhouse was eliminated, only once in 2023 he reached a Players Championship semi-final.
This year it looks a little bit better for Edhouse, who already qualified five times for an European Event and twice reached a quarterfinal. He averaged always over 90 with averages between 90.20 to 98.66. Beside his results on the Pro Tour were a little bit better as well - once he again stood in the semi-finals. All in all his results were good enough to qualify by the Pro Tour Order of Merit for the World Matchplay.
Edhouse' opponent Chris Dobey started with a win on the Pro Tour and a semi-final on the European Tour good into the year 2024 and to be sure is the better darts player, but Dobey already lost three times in the first round of the World Matchplay before he reached the quarterfinals last year. Edhouse could turn out to be a rather awkward opponent for Dobey.