The form list ranks players on their last 200 legs, and Price walked out of the AFAS Live with the sharpest set of numbers on tour. His run to the final earned him a tournament average of 99.78, almost a full point clear of Littler at 98.80, and the Welshman now leads on both average and OChE despite losing the final 11-5 to Ross Smith.

Littler’s drop is partly a matter of subtraction. His campaign in Amsterdam ended in the quarter-finals against Jonny Clayton, and his doubling let him down at the sharp end.

Wattimena the biggest climber

Jermaine Wattimena is the biggest mover on the list. The Dutchman has forced his way into the top ten in seventh place after a productive run of Players Championship performances, an eight-place jump in his OChE ranking over the last 48 hours.

Ross Smith’s ranking has climbed with his trophy. The Englishman averaged 103.89 and hit 11 maximums to end a four-year wait for a second major title, and no player on tour is closing legs more quickly over the last 200 attempts.

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Clayton sits just outside the top ten but leads the whole tour on finishing. He is pinning 46% of his doubles and hitting double 16 more than half the time, a set of numbers no player in the top ten can currently match.

Den Bosch left thin at the top

The reshuffle lands during a difficult week off the oche. Littler has withdrawn from Players Championship 29 and 30 in Den Bosch and from October’s Dutch Darts Championship in Maastricht, citing repeated booing and whistling from Dutch spectators during his matches against Danny Noppert and Nathan Aspinall at the World Series of Darts Finals.

“There’s just no point in me travelling, wasting my time while I’m getting booed,” Littler said.

“If the Dutch stay like this, then I’m not going to do any Euro Tours over there.”

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Price and James Wade have also pulled out of the two Den Bosch events, with no reasons made public. Gary Anderson and Josh Rock are among the players who have withdrawn from the Dutch Darts Championship in Maastricht.

The World Grand Prix starts at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester on Monday, 28 September, with first-round matches from 6pm local time and a winner’s cheque of £150,000.

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