Fallon Sherrock and Lisa Ashton are dominated the world of women's darts and Paul Nicholson ponders whether we can yet decide who is the superior player.
The trailblazing duo sealed their World Championship returns by finishing in the top two places in the Order of Merit of the PDC Women's Series in Milton Keynes, which reached its conclusion after 12 events across September and October, while Ashton will also join Sherrock in the Grand Slam of Darts in November.
They won three titles apiece in the first six events at the Marshall Arena last month while they faced each other in the last three of those finals, with the Lancashire Rose winning twice before her younger rival ended on a high with a thumping 5-0 victory.
The Queen of the Palace won a further three titles this weekend to take her tally to six but Ashton finished her campaign on five after losing the sixth tournament of the weekend to Mikuru Suzuki.
Sherrock and Ashton faced each other on three more occasions this past weekend and traded victories in two of the finals while the 51-year-old won the other meeting which occurred in a quarter-final.
In terms of averages, Sherrock finished the season on 85.54 ahead of Ashton on 84.44 and they both recorded a pair of 100+ averages.
Writing before this weekend, the Asset insists the debate about the dominant force in women's darts will rage on long after this weekend...
I don’t think we’ve had a lady rivalry as big as this in the history of darts and I think that’s partly down to the fact we’re constantly talking about the women’s game more than ever before.
Fallon Sherrock and Lisa Ashton are both going to qualify for the World Championship, which is the right result because they are the two best females around - but to say who is superior right now is a very hard question to answer.
Lisa Ashton has been on the planet a lot longer and therefore has more experience of winning world titles during her time in the BDO and in recent years has been playing the top men on a regular basis in the PDC.
Fallon Sherrock is regarded as the breath of fresh air and a poster player for darts as a whole, let alone the women’s game.
But right now they’re both doing things that women haven’t done before – regularly hitting 100+ averages and beating blokes. It’s turning into the norm.
The only way we’re going to find out who the best player is if there is to be a women’s World Championship and they both reach the final and subsequently play over a long format, not best of seven or best of nine legs like their Women’s Series matches.
They’ve won three of those tournaments each so they can’t be split!
It was incredibly magnanimous of Fallon Sherrock to say Lisa Ashton is still the best female player despite beating her 5-0 in the last Women’s Series final.
She’d lost the previous three encounters over a day and a half – including one where she missed match darts – so to turn that form around and win to nil was monstrous for her confidence going forwards.
Most players would have struggled to bounce back from losing to their biggest rival three times in such a short space of time, and that last fixture had a place at the Grand Slam of Darts on the line just to add extra pressure.
It’s therefore testament to her incredible character, which we’ve seen multiple times now on the televised stages.
We can talk about what they’ve done previously or what they could achieve in the future but we need to get them up against each other in a proper long format set-play match.
In an ideal world we might see them face off in the second or third round of the World Championship this December but until we see them in that kind of a contest on a big stage, this debate will rage on and on.
In a way the constant chatter about it on social media increases the intensity and hype surrounding the rivalry, but at the same time I do wish darts fans could just appreciate the fact we have them both right now. For the women’s game to progress, we need them both.
I get on with Lisa while Fallon is like a mate to me. So I know they don’t get on, but they are both classy ladies who know they are carrying the women’s game right now on their shoulders. There is no sign of animosity between them during matches and all the viewers will see is respect.
Next year you’d like to hope they will both be on the PDC circuit. Even if Lisa loses her card at the end of this season, I’d fancy her to win it back because she’ll go straight to the final stage of Q School.
If they both have two full seasons on the main circuit in 2022 and 2023, playing in the same tournaments and against similar opposition then we can benchmark them and talk about who is the best right now.
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