Three years ago Fallon Sherrock was the “Queen of the Palace” and if you didn’t know what that meant, you only had to listen to her matches at the Darts World Cup. There was such a great atmosphere in London’s Alexandra Palace that even die-hard darts professionals were amazed. Sherrock was cheered furiously, her opponents booed, which in a crowd of 3000 mostly inebriated and inebriated darts fans can swell into a massive hurricane.
Everyone present wanted to see what happens when a woman wins a game at the World Cup for the first time – and Sherrock delivered. She defeated her male colleague Ted Evetts in the first round, won against the Austrian Mensur Suljovic in the second round and only dropped out in the third round. The sport suddenly had a new heroic figure; and the world darts association PDC rejoiced at the sudden marketing opportunities that the single British mother from Buckinghamshire brought him with her precisely thrown darts.
Three years later, the darts world is different for Sherrock, now 28. She will compete again at the World Championships in “Ally Pally”, she will meet Brit Ricky Evans in the first round on Tuesday evening, but the mood has changed. Instead of buckets of euphoria, Sherrock is now met with considerable resentment. Some say that participation was given as a gift just because it is easy to market. Others pour out their malice on social networks. Male darts colleagues have also expressed criticism.
Is that how you treat a “Queen” on the island?
Sherrock and the PDC are a bit to blame for the mess themselves. Perhaps it should have been left at the fact that Sherrock did not qualify this time in a difficult year. There are still two starting places in the field of 96 participants at the World Championships, which are reserved for the best women. These were secured by Beau Greaves and Lisa Ashton because they each had a better season than Sherrock. They were well ahead of her in the rankings.
“It doesn’t matter what I do, I’m still hated,” says Sherrock
But the PDC really wanted Sherrock to be there and looked for a loophole. And found one, because Sherrock had won the Women’s Matchplay in July, a television tournament held for the first time. So the PDC changed the regulations without further ado and declared the tournament as a qualification criterion a few weeks before the World Championships. The intention behind this was obvious: the World Cup should take place with and not without Sherrock; the reactions were due to this special treatment. Most violently, of course, on social networks, with comments far below any tolerance limit. But criticism also arose among their fellow players. He has “nothing against Fallon,” assured Dutchman Vincent van der Voort, “but this invitation is ridiculous.”
Sherrock sees things a little differently. She won a television tournament, she doesn’t have to apologize for that. And if the PDC invite her to the highlight of the year, why shouldn’t she attend? She seems pretty upset anyway. “It doesn’t matter what I do, I’m still hated,” Sherrock said in an interview. So it has come to this.
Sherrock has found her way with the comments on the Internet. She finally asked the trolls to formulate criticism in her face, but most of them probably lacked the courage to do so. The criticism from the male colleagues is also bearable, because there are also those who expressly approve of Sherrock’s participation. More difficult is that Sherrock no longer feels welcome in the “Women’s Series”. “It’s mostly the women,” said Sherrock recently. She feels shunned on the tour there and treated badly, which is a shame because she has personally invested a lot in her sport. Ultimately, they would only make the reactions stronger: “I’m at a point now where I’m like, ‘If you wanna hate me, then hate me.'”
Sherrock therefore had a special hope for the World Cup. She’s counting on Beau Greaves and Lisa Ashton to play well – and she’ll end up not being the only woman to ever win a World Cup game. “It would take a bit of pressure, stress and publicity off me,” Sherrock said. But nothing came of it. Greaves and Ashton have already lost their first round matches. So Fallon Sherrock is on his own again. She knows about it.