HERE WE BEAU FOR THE WOMEN’S GAME!

Words by Iona May Todd.

THE darts reign of male domination has existed for a (very) long time.

From the fearsome era of Phil Taylor to Michael van Gerwen and then Luke Littler startling the scene in 2023.

But today underlined another whirlwind of change in the sport with 22-year-old Beau Greaves hitting a first-ever perfect leg by a woman on the PDC tour.

Having achieved a tour card and beating Littler last year, is Greaves once again accelerating women parting the clouds of a once male-led sport?

I take your ‘Littler Effect’ and raise you by the ‘Lady Effect.’

PDC president Barry Hearn has previously said that around a third of viewers of darts championships are now women.

The ‘royal seal of approval’ was bestowed upon the darts back in 2012 by female British royal, Zara Tindall.

The original trailblazers were Maureen Flowers, Trina Gulliver, Deta Hedman and Lisa Ashton.

Monarch of the sport and ‘Queen of the Palace’ Fallon Sherrock rocked the stage when she became the first woman to beat a man at the PDC World Championship in 2019. The PDC then announced a new qualifying structure last year that sees increased female participation in the sport, with four women competing in World Championships instead of a previous three.

And even still, despite it all, there seems a certain flatness to these women-led darting milestones.

Because for all the achievements women assert on the oche, is fanning the flames of gendered arguments in darts somewhat fruitless? Are the darts really made for the men?

To understand darting at its core, let’s turn back time and rewind.

The game originated in the 14^th century.

In the early 1900’s, the then considered ‘game of chance’ was plenty heralded by a plethora of pub-going men in the backrooms of their local.

And at this time, where misogyny in pub-spheres flourished, it’s more likely that a ‘lipstick’ and a ‘champagne finish’ would be darting jargon used to entice women more than it would be used to include them.

I now take you to 1972.

My mother, a child of the seventies, is a woman steeped in sweeping glamour, with the clop of high heels often narrating her existence. Donned in faux fur coats or knee-high boots, femininity exudes.

Isn’t this the direct antithesis of darting nature? Isn’t it then strange that it’s she who introduced me to darts?

So, imagine the shock of her then-manager in the 2010’s, when he questioned why on earth she would be interested in darts, just for her answer to be, “Well, if it’s good enough for Zara Tindall, then it’s good enough for me.”

Therefore, how can it be assumed that women aren’t the tungsten backbone of the darting world?

Presenters Emma Paton, Polly James, Abigail Davies, Laura Turner, the PDC Dancers, the mothers who have raised darting legends, me twirling my pen as I write about the sport – it is this very space which puts the sport in the orbit of darting fans.

True, I’ve been called too glamorous for my own good at the pub, and I’ve won darts games in my high heels. And yet, it is these very instances which indicate that femininity pierces the sport as fierce as a Beau ’n’ Arrow.

Surely the ability of darting popularity to rain gleefully upon a variety of different genders, ages, and cultures, regardless of bias, asserts the true strength and power of the perfect darting storm.

Because it’s the thunder of Lisa Ashton’s four BDO titles and ‘Golden Girl’ Trina Gulliver with her seven consecutive BDO World Championship wins, which see the girls as truly digging their heels into the darting game.

Barry Hearn did once proclaim that darts is a “gender-free” sport.

And whilst there is still such a steep road to trek towards true female proclivity in darts – what with the top prize at the Women’s World Matchplay standing at £25,000, significantly lower than the regular Matchplay which sees the champion gain £200,000 – it’s tangible that women are striking at the very heart of the game.

The darts, recognised as the “Rowdiest Winter Party” according to The New York Times, is gaining traction within circles of women.

Whether that be for participating in the game during night’s in, or for donning Pink Power Ranger costumes and swishing our ciders for sight of our favourite doubles – literally ask my girls in the group chat if you don’t believe me – the women seem to be shining upon the darts in the sport’s newest dawn.

So, whilst football is recognised as the most popular sport watched by women in the UK at the moment, the evidence that ‘record numbers are watching women’s sport’ according to the Women’s Sport Trust, asserts the winds of women creating tremors across the general sporting sphere.

And as Beau Greaves asserts that it really is “possible for a woman like [her] to win the darts,” it’s an assured declaration that skies of male-led darts are being rearranged by the women who both love to play it and love to watch it.

It’s another great day for women in the sport.