IT’S NOT FAIR ON SHERR
Duo reckon Fallon hasn’t earned spot in Premier League yet
FALLON SHERROCK is on the brink of becoming the first woman to be picked for the Premier League – but John Part and Kim Huybrechts say she does not deserve a place yet.
The Queen of the Palace bowed out of the William Hill PDC World Championship in the first round against Steve Beaton before Christmas.
Her pulling power at the box office, in TV ratings and as a standard-bearer for the women’s game make the former Bletchley hairdresser a tempting choice for Sky Sports and the Professional Darts Corporation, who pick six of the 10 Premier League players as wildcards. But three-time world champion Part – a Sky commentator who will be going to Q School this month to try to regain his PDC Tour card at 55 – insists the experience could turn out to be “unforgiving” for Sherrock. And outspoken Belgian player Huybrechts, whose two seasons on the Premier League roster saw him finish bottom of the pile in 2015 and 2017, claims the “hype” around the 27-year-old does not match her achievements. Defending champion Glen Durrant suffered a wipeout last season – played nine, lost nine – when the regular Thursday night travelling circus was forced to go behind closed doors in Milton Keynes.
Part, the Canadian who won the World Championship on its first staging at Alexandra Palace in 2008, said: “I think it would be hard to pick Fallon with the current format. Certainly she is capable of playing.
“But if I was Fallon or representing her, I probably wouldn’t want her to do it. I know from all the experience myself and watching other players, it is a grist mill.
“It’s not favourable, in most cases, to go through all that in terms of confidence.
“Yes, it is challenging and a great experience in a lot of ways. But it can really bash you as well, it can be unforgiving.
“Kim Huybrechts’ first year. Even Michael Smith, he was iffy first time.
“There have always been guys who get killed – Mark
Webster, myself. Commercially, yeah it would be good in a lot of ways to have Fallon in it.
“But I don’t think it would be good for Fallon.
“And I am not sure it is fair to the other players – and that is the biggest issue. You cannot undercut somebody who maybe is entirely deserving without question in favour of something which might be pure publicity.
“In some ways, that is bad publicity. Someone like Dimitri van den Bergh, who is coming out of the top eight, is he in danger of missing out?
“But he is an entertaining type, so you wonder what the ultimate deciding factors are once you get past the top
I am not sure it is fair to the other players and that is the biggest issue JOHN PART ON PREMIER LEAGUE SPOT FOR SHERROCK
four. Much of it is about keeping the crowds happy. They have to turn up, right? You will have the more popular players, I think.”
Part could even find himself going head-to-head with Sherrock for a tour card at Q School – and he reckons he already knows what to expect.
He added: “At Q School a few years ago I played Lorraine Winstanley. I played a fantastic game, crazy good, and I lost to her. I didn’t feel bad about it at all.
“I have always been comfortable playing against women. I didn’t like losing necessarily but I didn’t think my performance was inhibited in any way.”
Huybrechts, however, was less equivocal, bordering on scathing. The 36-year-old, who exited Ally Pally with a third-round defeat by Gerwyn Price, said: “I predicted Steve would beat her and I think I’m going to get a lot of responses. But the Fallon Sherrock hype is getting a bit too much, to be honest. She’s really good and she deserves where she is at the moment.
“But there was no respect for Steve. She was going to get a Premier League place and a tour card but she’s not unbeatable, you know.
“Let the girl be who she wants to be. She’s got a whole lot of pressure now for a tour card at Q School. Let her play darts and do what she’s good at. Forget the media circus, just let her play darts.
“Premier League? She has a good chance with Sky.
“Does she deserve it? I don’t think so. There are a whole lot of players who have done a lot better at tournaments and they never got into the Premier League.”