The ex-hairdresser giving darts a makeover
After her historic World Championship win this week, 25-year-old Fallon Sherrock tells Ben Bloom why she’s proud to be changing the game
Flanked by her two “walk-on boys” – suited security guards separating players from intoxicated spectators – 25-year-old Fallon Sherrock could hardly suppress her smile at Alexandra Palace on Tuesday night.
Here she was on the biggest darts stage of all: a north London arena oozing raucous masculinity from its every pore. But where the only noticeable female presence has for decades come courtesy of scantily clad walk-on girls, who never fail to attract catcalls from the boorish crowd, Sherrock would this week come to symbolise the new face of darts, beating her male rival to become the first woman ever to win a PDC World Championship match.
“I’m waiting for it all to sink in,” she tells me after her historic victory. “I can’t describe how I’m feeling.”
Few more demure figures have ever set foot inside the event, seen by its legions of fans as the pinnacle of the sport. With her pink shirt and lipstick and dyed blonde hair, Sherrock is as far from the image of a traditional darts player that you could conjure. But as deafening cheers greeted her entrance to Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night, her presence seemed to signal a farewell to the days of 20-stone blokes sinking countless pre-match pints. Indeed, the biggest star in the darts world is now a twentysomething, teetotal single mother.
Becoming the first female winner of a World Championship match was something Sherrock had dreamt of often. While the sport had never actively blocked women from competing, it was only last year that the PDC organisers ring-fenced two of its 96 spots for female competitors and, prior to Tuesday night, none of Sherrock’s predecessors had managed to secure that elusive victory.
That all changed in the space of one of the most memorable hours in Alexandra Palace history, with the former hairdresser pulling off an almighty upset to see off favourite Ted Evetts. Rarely, if ever, can a first-round victory have been more significant.
Incredibly, Sherrock had never picked up a dart until she was 17, when she decided to try her hand at a sport her father played recreationally. “I started off playing county youth and realised I was quite good,” she says with amusing simplicity.
After the birth of her son Rory five years ago, she gave up hairdressing in order to devote her life to being a full-time mother and part-time darts player. The time split is one necessitated by Rory’s autism, which means she cares for him throughout
The biggest star in the darts world is now a teetotal single mother
the day and is only able to practise her sport inside their modest two-bed house in Milton Keynes once he is asleep. “That’s normally about 7pm, so that’s when I hit the board,” she says.
It is a far cry from the glamour and riches at the very highest end of the sport, but echoes the situation every female darts player finds themselves in, juggling the demands of home and working life.
She calls on the help of family – Rory watched his mother’s surprise victory at home with his grandmother – in order to make ends meet.
Sherrock has also overcome health issues to rise to the top, having contracted a serious kidney condition after giving birth. It means she is now unable to consume alcohol and must ensure she constantly drinks water during competitions to help flush her kidneys out. Yet the illness has affected her in less direct ways, too.
Forced to take medication that caused her face to swell significantly, she became the target of horrific abuse from online trolls who cruelly labelled her “moon face”. Sadly, such taunts were nothing new.
Speaking after her landmark triumph, Sherrock revealed the shocking level of vitriol regularly thrown at her purely for being a female in the male-dominated darts world. “Trolls online are constantly giving you sexist comments,” she says, usually “along the lines of ‘the women are not as good as the men’. And I get called a lesbian.
“I had a lot of negative comments, but it made me stronger and made me want to do more in my game. It made me more determined if anything.” She says that she has “bounced back” from the insults; instead of letting it get her down, “it inspired me to get better and prove anyone wrong”.
And as of this week, she adds, “at least one barrier has come down – they can’t say anything now because we’ve beaten the men at the World Championship”.
In doing so, Sherrock has likely changed her life forever. Yesterday morning, before returning home to see her son ahead of her second-round match on Saturday, she found herself racking up a second victory against a male rival in as many days: wiping the floor with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain. Celebrity status beckons.
“I thought the other day when Nando’s tweeted me that I’d made it,” she jokes. “But now I’ve got a [Twitter verified] blue tick.” Stephen Fry has since tweeted his congratulations.
The financial gain is also likely to be significant. Where last year she received just £1,000 for going out in the quarter-finals of the BDO Women’s World Championship (hosted by a rival organisation), she is now guaranteed £15,000 even if she loses against 11th seed Mensur Suljović this weekend.
It is already the largest amount of money ever won by a female darts player, but should she win that match the prize will rise to £25,000. If she is crowned world champion on January 1, she will be £500,000 richer.
“The money will be nice because it’s the most I’ve ever won,” she says. “Hopefully, there will be sponsors coming forward.”
That seems certain, but the victory is about far more than personal riches.
Sherrock has already announced she is auctioning her signed match board from the victory over Evetts to raise money for the National Autistic Society, an organisation she describes as “close to my heart”. Morgan has also pledged £1,000 to the charity after his defeat.
Then there is her new status as the figurehead of the female darting world. Aside from the television appearances that are likely to become a regular feature, Sherrock’s main goal is for her victory to inspire other women into the sport she loves.
Progress continues to be made. In addition to the PDC’S reservation of World Championship spots for two female players, Sherrock was accompanied on stage during her win by Hungarian Daniela Bata Bogdanov, who this week became the first ever female scoring official at the event.
Sherrock’s fellow women’s player Laura Turner has also been in the commentary booth throughout the competition.
“I’m just happy that I’ve made history and put ladies’ darts on the map,” says Sherrock, adding that she hopes “I’ve just inspired more women to take up the sport and play”.
As for Rory, one day he will come to realise the scale of what his mother achieved on a frosty evening in north London, breaking new ground for women in the most testosteronefuelled of sports.
“I’m so glad my son is going to grow up looking at the newspaper cuttings and thinking: ‘Wow, my mum did this,’” says Sherrock.
“I’ll settle for that.”