Bullseye: Female darts player breaks down ‘gender’ barrier

Sherrock makes history

LONDON, Dec 18, (AP): The widely held image of professional darts on television screens as a game typically played by out-of-shape men has been shattered by the barrier-breaking exploits of a young Englishwoman.

Amid raucous scenes at London’s atmospheric Alexandra Palace, Fallon Sherrock became an unlikely overnight celebrity in Britain when she landed a double 18 to clinch victory over a male opponent at the sport’s flagship event, the PDC World Championship, on Tuesday.

It was a first win by a woman on darts’ highest stage, one that trended on Twitter and has catapulted the 25-year-old Sherrock into a life she could never have imagined.

Wednesday morning saw her appear on some of the biggest TV and radio shows in Britain. Much to her delight and surprise, she now has a blue tick next to her name on her Twitter account. The biggest payday of her career – by a long way – awaits her at the weekend.

Bigger than all that, she is now a trailblazer in the game.

“It definitely sends out a good statement,” Sherrock said. “We can beat the men.”

And how her win was celebrated. After hitting the winning double to claim a 3-2 victory over Ted Evetts, she skipped to the board to collect her darts and turned around to see a room of mostly inebriated men bouncing up and down and singing in celebration.

“We love you Fallon, we do,” they chanted, over and over again.

She shook hands with Evetts, who then applauded Sherrock and extended his right arm out as if to urge spectators to acclaim Sherrock, a one-time professional hairdresser who first picked up a dart when she was aged 17.

“I’ve always had the game,” she said Wednesday, “but us women have never had the opportunity to prove it.”

Until last year, that is. That was when the man that runs top-level darts, promoter Barry Hearn, allocated two of the 96 places in the world championship field to women. Previously, women could attempt to qualify for the event but now spots were guaranteed.

On Monday, Mikuru Suzuki – the women’s world champion – took James Richardson to a sudden-death leg in the fifth set before losing.

Before that, Gayl King of Canada (2000), Anastasia Dobromyslova of Russia (2009, 2018) and Lisa Ashton of England (2018) had played in the main draw, all losing in the first round.

Sherrock went one better, setting up a second-round match against Mensur Suljovic, the 11th seed from Austria, where she is guaranteed to win at least 15,000 pounds (nearly $20,000) even if she loses.

It is a triumph of persistence for Sherrock, who developed a serious kidney condition after giving birth to her son, Rory, five years ago. She had to take medication and one of the sideeffects was the swelling of her face, which led to her receiving abuse online for her appearance.

That, plus what she described as “constant sexist comments” about trying to make her way as a darts player, “inspired me to get better and prove everyone wrong,” Sherrock told the BBC.

“Well, I have just proved them wrong,” she said.

It should deliver a huge fillip to the women’s game. The male-dominated sport is slowly starting to embrace females, with Daniela Bata-Bogdanov of Hungary becoming the first ever female scoring official at this event. She was scoring the Sherrock-Evetts match on Tuesday.

Leading women’s darts player Laura Turner is one of the commentators at the world championship.

And last year, officials took the decision to stop having walk-on girls lead players to the oche before matches at darts events “following feedback from host broadcasters.” The Formula One racing series has dispensed with the long-standing tradition of having women on the grid – known as ‘’Grid Girls’’ – before races, considering it inappropriate and outdated.

Unlike other sports where physicality is crucial, darts is about hand-eye co-ordination. So it might just be the cultural and social environment that has prevented women from making names for themselves in a game that has a cult following in Britain, and is also popular in The Netherlands and Germany among other countries as Hearn sends darts to new markets.

The opportunity is there for women to make a name for themselves in a game that not so long ago appeared blocked off for them. Sherrock’s success can only help in that regard.

Fallon Sherrock Fallon Sherrock in action at the PDC Darts World

Championship at Alexandra Palace, London, on Dec 17. (AP)

Los Angeles Kings center Blake Lizotte (46) threads between Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo (25) and right wing David Backes (42) during

the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, on Dec 17. (AP)

BOSTON, Dec 18, (AP): Anze Kopitar scored at 3:23 of overtime and the Los Angeles Kings rallied to beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 o.

Kopitar beat Tuukka Rask with a high wrist shot after Jonathan Quick had come up with a huge save at the other end, giving the Kings their fourth win in five games and extending their best stretch of the season (4-0-1).

Blake Lizotte had a goal and an assist for the Kings, who couldn’t hold on to leads of 1-0 and 2-1 before rallying for a thrilling finish. Down 3-2 late in the third, the Kings pulled Quick for an extra skater and tied it on Matt Roy’s slap shot with 2:01 left in regulation.

Adrian Kempe also scored for Los Angeles and Quick finished with 37 saves.

Danton Heinen had a goal and assist, and Patrice Bergeron and Brandon Carlo also scored for Boston, which fell to 1-5-1 in its last seven and has lost two straight at home. Rask had 23 saves.

Lightning 4, Senators 3, OT In Tampa, Florida, Anthony Cirelli scored with 12.7 seconds left in overtime to lift Tampa Bay past Ottawa.

Cirelli split two defenders near the blue line and lifted a shot past Marcus Hogberg.

Tampa Bay also got goals from Nikita Kucherov, Cedric Paquette and Brayden Point, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves.

Mark Borowiecki, Connor Brown and Anthony Duclair scored for the Senators. Hogberg, playing in his third game this season and seventh overall, stopped 36 shots.

Maple Leafs 5, Sabres 3 In Toronto, Auston Matthews scored twice and Toronto held on to beat Buffalo.

Frederik Gauthier had a goal and an assist, and Dmytro Timashov and Ilya Mikheyev also scored for the Maple Leafs. Frederik Andersen stopped 27 shots and Tyson Barrie had two assists.

Matthews became the second player in franchise history to score at least 20 goals in each of his first four NHL seasons, joining Dave Keon, who did it in six straight from 1960-66.

Rasmus Dahlin and Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist each, and Kyle Okposo scored for Buffalo. Victor Olofsson added two assists, and Linus Ullmark finished with 28 saves for the Sabres.

Predators 8, Islanders 3 In Uniondale, New York, Nick Bonino had the tiebreaking goal late in the second period as Nashville got seven consecutive scores to rally for its second win in two nights.

Craig Smith had two goals and an assist, Filip Forsberg, Calle Jarnkrok, Roman Josi and Ryan Johansen each had a goal and an assist, and Rocco Grimaldi also scored to help the Predators win for the fourth time in six games. Pekka Rinne stopped 27 shots.

Brock Nelson, Derrick Brassard and Casey Cizikas scored in a 5:16 span of the second period to give the Islanders a 3-1 lead. However, it was all Predators after that. Thomas Greiss gave up five goals on 15 shots through two periods, and Semyon Varlamov stopped six of the nine shots he faced in the third.

Flyers 4, Ducks 1 In Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Flyers honored cancer-stricken teammate Oskar Lindblom and beat Anaheim behind goals by Claude Giroux, David Kase and Jake Voracek.

The Flyers played their first home game since Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a cancerous tumor that grows in the bones or in the tissue around bones. The 23-year-old from Sweden, who is out for the season, stopped by the locker room during morning skate and visited his teammates.

The Flyers warmed up in purple “Hockey Fights Cancer” jerseys and will auction them off with proceeds going to Ewing’s sarcoma research. They left “I Fight For Oskar” signs on every seat, and fans held them during a tribute video for Lindblom. Ducks and Flyers players tapped their sticks and fans stood and applauded the promising forward who had 11 goals and 18 points in 30 games this season. Philadelphia sold #OskarStrong purple shirts, and proceeds from the 50/50 raffle were donated toward Ewing’s sarcoma research.

Carter Hart had 40 saves for the Flyers, and Sean Couturier added an emptynetter in the final seconds.

Rickard Rakell made it 2-1 in the second with his 10th goal for Anaheim. John Gibson finished with 27 saves.

Blue Jackets 5, Red Wings 3 In Detroit, Pierre-Luc Dubois scored early in the third period and Gustav Nyquist added an empty-netter in the closing seconds, helping Columbus win its second straight.

Cam Atkinson and Oliver Bjorkstrand had goals 1:04 apart to put Columbus ahead midway through the first, and Kevin Stenlund tied it 3-3 midway through the second with his first NHL goal. Joonas Korpisalo finished with 18 saves. Adam Erne scored twice and Tyler Bertuzzi also scored for Detroit, and Jonathan Bernier stopped 34 shots. The Red Wings have lost 14 of their last 16 games.

Hurricanes 6, Jets 3 In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal each scored twice, Andrei Svechnikov added his second lacrosse-style goal of the season, and Carolina extended its point streak to 5-0-1.

Lucas Wallmark also scored for Carolina, Dougie Hamilton contributed three assists, and Nino Niederreiter added two. Petr Mrazek made 30 saves for the Hurricanes, who are 3-0-1 during a five-game trip that ends Thursday in Colorado.

Jack Roslovic, Patrik Laine and Mark

Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes (43) checks Montreal Canadiens’ Artturi Lehkonen (62), of Finland, during the first period of an NHL hockey

game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Dec 17. (AP)

Scheifele scored for the Jets, who had won five straight at home. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 18 shots for Winnipeg before Laurent Brossoit replaced him to start the third period with Carolina ahead 5-2. Brossoit made four saves.

Penguins 4, Flames 1 In Calgary, Alberta, Evgeni Malkin scored his 400th goal as Pittsburgh beat Calgary.

The Russian joined Mario Lemieux (690), Sidney Crosby (451) and Jaromir Jagr (439) as the only players in franchise history to reach 400 goals.

Malkin scored Pittsburgh’s first empty-net goal in the third period, and Kris Letang added another.

Bryan Rust and John Marino also scored for the Penguins in a third straight win to open a three-game swing through Alberta and British Columbia. Tristan Jarry made 33 saves for his fifth win in six starts.

Johnny Gaudreau scored for the Flames, who have lost back-to-back games following a seven-game winning streak. Cam Talbot stopped 29 shots in his ninth start this season (3-6-0).

Golden Knights 3, Wild 2 In Las Vegas, Tomas Nosek scored his first goal in nearly a month, MarcAndre Fleury made 24 saves and Vegas beat Minnesota in regulation for the first time.

Chandler Stephenson and Shea Theodore also scored for the Golden Knights, who were facing the Wild for the seventh time since joining the league in 2017. It also marked the first time Vegas won three straight at home this season.

Fleury got career win No. 453, one shy of Curtis Joseph for sixth all-time.

Mats Zuccarello and Zach Parise scored for the Wild, and Alex Stalock made 26 saves.

Canadiens 3, Canucks 1 In Vancouver, British Columbia, Tomas Tatar and Shea Weber scored power-play goals 1:34 apart in the third period to lift Montreal.

Nick Cousins also scored to help the Canadiens win for the fourth time in five games. Max Domi and Joel Armia had two assists each, and Carey Price stopped 38 shots.

Adam Gaudette scored and Jacob Markstrom finished with 27 saves for the Canucks, who lost their third straight game and fourth in five.

Coyotes 3, Sharks 2 In San Jose, California, Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period and Arizona beat San Jose.

Ekman-Larson’s shot from the heart of the left circle went wide right of the goal but ricocheted off Sharks defenseman Brendan Dillon’s shin and in with 2:37 left in regulation.