FALLY PALLY
Sherrock eyes a second miracle in north London
FALLON SHERROCK makes her second coming as Queen of the Palace tonight – grateful for an encore after lockdown threatened to kill her career.
When Sherrock became the first woman to beat male opponents at the William Hill PDC World Championship two years ago – memorably knocking out Ted Evetts and No.11 seed Mensur Suljovic – the former hairdresser was riding the crest of a blow-wave.
She followed up her success at Alexandra Palace by holding Glen Durrant to a 6-6 draw as a guest challenger in the Premier League.
But when Covid immersed the nation in paralysis and fear, Sherrock’s exhibition work dried up and her invitation to play in the World Series at New
York’s iconic Madison Square
Garden was left in the pending tray.
Twelve months ago, after failing to qualify for Ally Pally,
Sherrock feared her time had come and gone in the blink of an eye.
She said: “When Covid hit, I thought,
‘This could only happen to me’.
“Then I turned my mindset around and thought, ‘You made it happen once – make it happen again. You worked hard to get there, you can do it.’ That is what I have been doing – properly working hard again.
“It has made me more hungry for it, I feel I am playing better than I was before lockdown, purely because I want to get back there.
Lazy
“I knew after the worlds before lockdown, where everything was opening up for me – exhibitions and stuff like that – I was getting tired and lazy.
“If I’m honest, I knew that, I wasn’t putting in the hours. But now I am putting in the hours as I want to get there and get better than I was in 2019.
“I went from quiet Fallon, where no one knew who I was, to someone everyone seemed to know about.”
If Sherrock, 27, was unsure how far her fame resonated beyond the oche, transatlantic messages of support from tennis legend Billie Jean King and Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker soon put her right.
“You don’t expect these iconic people to be reaching out over a game of darts that we play all the time,” she added.
But the partisan support of a party crowd will be no laughing matter for former Lakeside world champion Steve Beaton, Sherrock’s first-round opponent – even if she is not tuned into the atmosphere.
She said: “When I am in the zone, I don’t really focus on what is going on, although I still remember the roars for the 180s.
“I want to send the crowd mental. I want to hit a 180 and make them go wahey!
“That is my ambition all the time. When I am up there and hear them, I want to hit it and make them explode.”