LADIES IN WAITING
Women beating men will be the norm soon says Fallon
FIRST lady of darts Fallon Sherrock says it is only a matter of time before women beating men on the oche becomes normal.
The Bletchley hairdresser heads for the £300,000 World Series of Darts finals, starting tonight in Amsterdam, convinced she no longer needs curling tongs to straighten out the minor kinks in her game.
And Sherrock, who made history by knocking Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljovic out of the PDC World Championship at Alexandra Palace two years ago, believes she belongs in elite company.
Sherrock ran three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen desperately close in the Nordic Darts Masters final six weeks ago before going down 11-7.
She said: “At some stage, it will become a normality when people aren’t shocked by women beating the men at major tournaments.
“It will not be a big surprise any more when we can get more women on TV and more women playing the men – that’s when the novelty will wear off.
“At the moment women’s sport is still on a high. Anything a woman achieves in sport is good.
“In darts, when they beat the men it’s more publicised. But it will get to a point where everyone says, ‘OK, this has been done 10 times, 20 times, 100 times, this is exciting.’”
Sherrock, who is seeded in the World Series finals, will play Gabriel Clemens or Krzysztof Ratajski when she joins the competition in the second round.
She has nothing to fear after the way she rattled Van Gerwen’s cage in Copenhagen last month, where Clog Almighty was reduced to tears of relief when he won.
Sherrock, 27, said: “I proved in Copenhagen that I can actually play darts. I don’t have to prove myself anymore.
“I can go there relaxed, play my darts and hopefully play like I did against Michael.
“I wasn’t surprised by how I was playing, because I normally play like that.
“Yeah, when it got to 7-6 I thought, ‘How are you up like this against Michael van Gerwen?.’ I had shocked myself. And I shouldn’t have done that.
“A lot of players on the circuit can’t get near Michael when he is throwing 100-plus averages, I literally got so much confidence from that match.
“The next step for me is to close the games out, eventually I will get there.”