18 September 2020

Fallon Sherrock hopes women beating men in darts tournaments can become ‘the norm’

Darts star Fallon Sherrock hopes the sport can reach a stage in the near future when it is considered ‘normal’ for a woman to beat a man.

The 26 year-old made history at the PDC World Darts Championship last year by becoming the first woman to win a match at the event, beating Ted Evetts in the first round.

Sherrock is by far the highest profile woman darts player on the circuit (DPA/PA Images)

She then followed that up with another breathtaking victory against Mensur Suljovic, before losing in the third round to Chris Dobey.

And while Sherrock has not shied away from describing just how incredible her journey at the world championships was, she is also aware there is a long way to go before there is gender equality.

“The next step to it all would be - oh, it's not just a woman beating a man. It's two great players playing against each other and the winner, yes it might happen to be a woman but it's not seen as 'a woman', it's seen as a really good player," she told Sky Sports.

It would be really nice to get to that point, where it's not a surprise anymore. There are many other women. You've got Lorraine [Winstanley], Ana (Anastasia Dobromyslova), Beau Greaves, all of them people. Even Mikuru [Suzuki].

"We can all beat the men. And obviously the more we do it, the more we do it. And hopefully we get to a point where it's not massive news anymore, it's just 'yeah, they've beaten a man'. That's the normality."

Since her run at the world championships nine months ago, Sherrock has made her Premier League debut with a 6-6 draw against Glen Durrant.

And this weekend she will come up against some of the best players in the world once more as she plays in the World Series of Darts Finals in Austria.

The Buckinghamshire-born player also has her sights set on her next goal which is to win a PDC Tour Card, something four-time BDO world champion Lisa Ashton has already achieved.

"What Lisa has done is brilliant. It's such an achievement, and it's definitely something that I aspire to do as well," Sherrock added.

"Seeing how she has beaten all these men on the Pro Tour, it just gives me more incentive to go to Q-School, get my card and go to the Pro Tour and play on that. She has definitely inspired me to practice a bit more and get onto that."

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