Queen of the Palace Sherrock falls at first hurdle
STEVE BEATON defied the Ally Pally boo-boys as Fallon Sherrock, the fanfavourite ‘Queen of the Palace’, lost in the first round of the World Darts Championship last night. Beaton, the ‘Bronzed Adonis’ who was making a record 31st consecutive World Championship appearance, applied his experience as he ignored the fanfare surrounding his opponent. He was even jeered while aiming at double 16 for the win but made no mistake, edging a 3-2 victory to set up a second-round meeting with Kim Huybrechts. ‘That was one of the hardest I’ve ever had to deal with,’ Beaton said afterwards. Sherrock, the 27-year-old from Milton Keynes, had enjoyed an impressive 2021 in which she reached the final of the Nordic Masters, — won by Michael van Gerwen — and the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts, where she lost a tight match to Peter Wright. Sherrock started her World Championship with a nervy 26 from her first three darts but soon settled as she followed that up with a 180. She took a 2-0 lead in the opening set, only for Beaton to come back to take it 3-2. The veteran’s previous best average in a Worlds match was 97.74 but he was averaging more than 100 here. He could have taken the second set with a single dart at bullseye but missed. Instead Sherrock stepped up and hit double tops to make it 1-1. But she went off the boil in the third set and Beaton took full advantage, winning all three legs to move a step closer to victory. The roles reversed in the fourth set as Sherrock took advantage of inconsistent darts from Beaton to win all three legs, levelling at 2-2. But Beaton took the fifth and final set 3-1 to advance at her expense.