Lisa Ashton takes to the World Championship stage on Wednesday night time, hoping for her first televised victory over a person
When Lisa Ashton takes to the Alexandra Palace stage on Wednesday night time, she’s going to accomplish that higher positioned than ever to emulate the landmark feats of Fallon Sherrock final 12 months.
Ashton will get her second likelihood two years after a first-round defeat to Jan Dekker, and 12 months on from Sherrock’s show-stealing flip that made headlines throughout the globe as she turned the primary girl to beat a person on the PDC World Championship.
The Lancashire Rose, a four-time ladies’s world champion, takes on Adam Hunt on Wednesday night time, as the primary of this 12 months’s feminine rivals to take to the Ally Pally stage.
After profitable the Grand Slam of Darts ladies’s qualifier, a dominant show within the Ladies’s Sequence noticed Ashton declare prime spot within the two-day Order of Benefit to safe her return to Ally Pally, having missed out to Sherrock final 12 months.
Deta Hedman joined her and Sherrock was the unfortunate participant to overlook out. Sherrock’s victories over Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljovic final 12 months had appeared as unlikely, as a lot as they have been celebrated, given Sherrock had not made big inroads within the ladies’s recreation.
The Queen of the Palace has risen to the problem and now sits on the head of the ladies’s recreation alongside the back-to-back ladies’s world champion Mikuru Suzuki however for a lot of, Ashton is the participant who has led the way in which for ladies’s darts.
That was evident at Q-Faculty in January the place Ashton, one 12 months on from lacking out by the narrowest of margins, secured a Tour Card over 5 days of competitors towards greater than 500 different gamers – the primary girl to earn her proper to play on the Professional Tour by way of that path.
Lisa and Deta have performed within the greatest women occasions on the earth and Lisa has had the category to have the ability to play in an excellent few of the lads’s occasions now.
Enjoying in entrance of a crowd, enjoying in entrance of the cameras that definitely will not daunt them, they’ve miles of expertise behind them and I feel they may need to play properly and play the way in which they know they will.
Colin Lloyd
Ashton won’t have the vociferous assist of a crowd this 12 months because the match goes behind closed doorways following the most recent authorities recommendation, however what she could have is a 12 months of blending it with the PDC.
Nonetheless what she has is a victory over Hunt, one in all 20 victories she has racked up on the Professional Tour this season, however she continues to be with out an elusive TV victory, having performed on the UK Open, the Grand Slam in addition to the World Championship.
Wednesday Night on the Darts (6pm)
| Spherical One | Max Hopp vs Gordon Mathers |
|---|---|
| Spherical One | Callan Rydz vs James Bailey |
| Spherical One | Adam Hunt vs Lisa Ashton |
| Spherical Two | Glen Durrant vs Diogo Portela |
Stay World Darts Championship
December 16, 2020, 6:00pm
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“It is an actual massive recreation for her as a result of she has been mixing it with the lads within the World Championships and within the Grand Slams and she or he’s come up brief each time,” mentioned Sky Sports activities’ Wayne Mardle.
“She will beat Adam Hunt, she beat him fairly lately in a Professional Tour occasion and he is aware of that. He did rather well to get out of his group on the Grand Slam however I feel Lisa is aware of she has the sport to win that recreation.
“It is a massive recreation for her and I consider she will be able to win it, and I hope she does as properly.”
Ashton was a 6-4 winner over Hunt in July on the Summer time Sequence, whereas Rob Cross, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Michael Smith, Gabriel Clemens and potential second-round opponent Jamie Hughes have all been conquered this season.
By her personal admission, Ashton feels she may have carried out extra this season. Runs to the third and fourth spherical of Gamers Championship occasions have been frequent, whereas she has additionally come inside one win of reaching a European Tour occasion.
0:31 Krzysztof Ratajski got here from 4-1 all the way down to edge out Lisa Ashton in Group C on the Grand Slam of Darts
On the Grand Slam of Darts in November, Ashton’s final aggressive motion, she powered right into a 4-1 lead over the world No 15 Krzysztof Ratajski solely to see the Polish Eagle produce 4 legs of blistering high quality.
Mardle believes after two years within the highlight there’s extra stress on Ashton, however she is healthier positioned than ever to deal with it.
“She led 4-1 towards Krzysztof Ratajski within the Grand Slam and did not get it carried out, however he averaged one thing like 120 within the final 4 legs in order that’s superb!
“However, once you maintain giving your self alternatives and failing, the video games maintain getting larger and greater when you’ve an opportunity to truly succeed.”
Alternatives have been there for Ashton this 12 months by way of her Tour Card, whereas Sherrock was attributable to have performed within the World Sequence because of her exploits in north London however the coronavirus pandemic has scuppered these hopes.
Amid all of the uncertainty on the present time, alternatives for ladies’s darts is briefly provide. As issues stand there isn’t any BDO World Championship scheduled for January because the embattled organisation stands on the point of demise.
Q-Faculty affords an opportunity and the variety of feminine rivals there’s more likely to swell in January, and whereas the Problem and Improvement Excursions supply an opportunity to progress, each Excursions have been pressured to supply a diminished schedule.
Sky Sports activities’ Laura Turner, a quarter-finalist finally 12 months’s ladies’s World Championship, takes up the story.
Lisa Ashton is the primary ladies to have gained a PDC Tour Card. Pic: Lawrence Lustig
“From a ladies’s darts perspective, we have not actually had something aside from the grassroots recreation. We have not had these skilled alternatives the place you possibly can make investments the time since you’re getting rewarded for taking part in. We have not had such a visual sport.
“Our World Championship began 23 years after the unique one which Leighton Rees gained and also you simply assume, it is enjoying a little bit of catch-up.
“As you have seen with the Asian Tour, this can be a nice alternative to not simply encourage extra folks to play since you’re making it extra seen, but additionally it may develop the usual.”
The usual is rising – Sherrock, Hedman and Suzuki are proof of that alongside Ashton.
The outdated adage in darts is taking your flooring kind to the TV stage. Ashton will get the prospect to do exactly that herself. Her flooring kind reveals a win over Hunt, one other on Wednesday night time and the worldwide headlines generated by Sherrock could also be replicated.
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