Fallon Sherrock earns spot at the World Darts Championship for winning the PDC Women's World Matchplay

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Thu November 24, 2022 · 2y ago

Fallon Sherrock has earned a spot at the 2023 World Darts Championship, which starts next month, for winning the PDC Women's World Matchplay earlier this season.

The Queen of the Palace looked set to miss out on a return to the Ally Pally, where her glass-ceiling smashing heroics three years ago shot her to stardom, after she finished third behind Lisa Ashton and teenage sensation Beau Greaves in the PDC's Women's Series.

Only the top two on the Order of Merit earned automatic qualification but the PDC have now announced they are giving female players a third spot at the World Championship, starting this year.

Sherrock gets the nod by virtue of winning the inaugural Women's World Matchplay in Blackpool back in July and now has the chance to create more history-making headlines alongside her female rivals.

Recently the Milton Keynes ace opened up about her difficult year and the negativity she's received from fellow female players - but the likes of Gerwyn Price have thrown their support behind her.

Sherrock's other exploits include a stunning run to last year's Grand Slam of Darts quarter-finals, where she averaged almost 100 over 29 legs against Peter Wright, and coming from 7-1 down to beat Dimitri Van den Bergh 11-10 at the 2021 Nordic Darts Masters before finishing a close runner-up to Michael van Gerwen.

This year she's failed to hit the same kind of heights following disappointing results on the World Series tour and the recent Grand Slam of Darts, but this will give her the opportunity to remind the world of what she's capable of.

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Sherrock, who defeated Aileen de Graaf in the Women's World Matchplay final, said: "That was a wonderful day for me and I'm proud to have won, and it's great that I will now get to go back to Ally Pally.

"The PDC have done amazing things for women's darts in recent years and that's given us players a platform to play at the highest level."

Meanwhile the PDC announced they would increase prize money on the PDC Women's Series to £10,000 per event.

This follows the expansion of the PDC Women's Series to 24 events across six weekends in 2023, meaning that prize money of £240,000 will be on offer next year.