Ashton will sacrifice family life to seize her big chance
Tour’s first-ever female qualifier is relishing prospect of professional game, writes Ben Bloom
Conveniently for Lisa Ashton, Wigan’s Robin Park Leisure Centre is no more than a half-hour hop across the M61 from her home in Bolton. So, after making history on Sunday as the first woman to get through qualifying to earn a place on the main Professional Darts Corporation’s Pro Tour, there was little delay to her celebrations when she left the sports hall that had been the scene of her triumph.
“It was all so stressful, I just needed a brew to calm down,” she told The Daily Telegraph. So I went home, my family came round and we had a Chinese takeaway and a brew. I was in heaven. It tasted like champagne to me.”
The mundanity of the playing arena, and subsequent lack of revelry, could scarcely be more out of sync with the enormity of a moment that will change Ashton’s life – maybe forever, but certainly for the two years her tour card is guaranteed.
It is 15 years since Ashton, 49, first stepped up to the oche, inspired by her four older brothers, who all played the game. Now a four-time women’s world champion, her siblings refuse to challenge her and she has progressed far beyond the men in her family.
Her achievement capped a momentous few weeks for female darts. Fallon Sherrock became the first woman to win a match at the PDC World Championships, the sport’s most prestigious competition. Then Ashton emerged from a qualifying school field of more than 500 – all but 16 of whom were men – to earn one of 20 spots available for the Pro Tour.
It will bring huge alterations to her day-to-day life. Despite her No1 position in the women’s world rankings, for the past couple of years, Ashton has squeezed practice between looking after her granddaughter and helping care for her mother and husband. The step up to darts big time will require total devotion to her sport.
“My life is going to change a lot because I’m going to have to play more hours and give more commitment to darts – it’s another level to what I’m used to,” she said.
“I won’t be able to do all the family life I’ve been doing. I’ll have to turn professional. I know I have to push my level even higher and see how far I can go. No disrespect to the ladies, but we do play better against the men. I think it’s because they are stronger – they are hitting higher scores, so it’s pushing us.
“Every step is a new challenge. I’m not there just to make up the numbers. Let them worry about me and not me worry about them.”
The financial benefits are bound to prove highly significant. While the total pot for this year’s British Darts Organisation Women’s World Championships was just £26,500, every European Tour event on the PDC Pro Tour has a prize fund of £140,000 and every Players Championships £75,000.
Consider also the perilous state of the female game in general. Despite Sherrock’s achievements at Alexandra Palace – which Ashton says “put ladies’ darts on the map” – the landscape for women’s darts is uncertain. The sole female-only tour is run by a BDO blighted by financial problems.
Ashton says she would love the PDC to introduce a tour for the world’s best women.
“Hopefully with Fallon and me and others having a go, Barry Hearn [PDC chairman] might do a little ladies’ tour,” she said.