“I ended up staying inside for ages just so no one would come near me” – Fallon Sherrock shut herself away at home after unprecedented media storm following historic World Championship run

On 17 December 2019, Fallon Sherrock thought she had simply won a darts match. The rest of the world saw something entirely different. Her historic victory over Ted Evetts at the PDC World Darts Championship made her world-famous within hours and triggered a media storm that even the Englishwoman herself could barely comprehend.

At Alexandra Palace, Sherrock became the first woman to win a match at the World Championship. On Tungsten Talk by the MODUS Super Series, she spoke at length about what happened next. There were interviews in the middle of the night and an appearance on Good Morning Britain, followed by her second World Championship victory, a sudden nickname and, eventually, the need to stay at home because she was recognised everywhere.

“I literally came off the stage and then I remember seeing my manager, Jason, and he just looked at me. He goes, 'Oh my God, I don't think you've realised what you've done.'" That matter-of-fact reaction showed how little Sherrock understood at the time about the scale of her achievement.

Once she entered the press room, everything changed. ““I walked into the room and there were so many people just wanting interviews. And I just then, that's when I kind of went into kind of like, 'Oh, what do I do?' because I could never do an interview. I was really bad at talking and all that.”

The press conference and subsequent interviews lasted so long that Sherrock did not return to her hotel until the early hours. She was not given much time to rest. Just a few hours later, another appointment was already waiting. “I remember getting back to the hotel really late and having to leave incredibly early the next morning.”

At around 4:00, Sherrock set off for the Good Morning Britain studio. What followed was a day that had little connection with a darts player’s normal routine. "I remember my phone dying all day. Your phone was dying all day, too. We had to go and get chargers and everything. I remember people saying, “Oh, you didn't talk to me the whole day. I didn't hear from you.” I was thinking, 'I wish I could laugh and stuff, but my phone wasn't working.'"

Demand for interviews was so high that Sherrock conducted new conversations by phone while travelling from one interview to the next. “I'd be sitting there doing an interview on the phone, and then you'd be told, 'Right, you've got another one in a minute. You need to hurry that up.' Then I'd have another one on this phone. Crazy.”

As if that was not enough, Sherrock also had to demonstrate early that morning why everyone was suddenly talking about her. A dartboard was set up during television appearances, although the conditions were hardly comparable to those at Alexandra Palace.

“I had no practice. The board was where it was supposed to be, but it was down here, and the oche was probably nowhere near where it was meant to be. I remember the board was swinging because it was attached to something."

For Sherrock, her appearance on Good Morning Britain was particularly surreal. She knew the programme from home. “I thought it was really cool. I genuinely thought, 'Oh my God, everyone watches this.' My mum used to put it on and stuff, so I knew what it was. I was pretty overwhelmed, but I enjoyed the experience. I thought it was really cool to meet all these people.”

It soon became clear that her achievement was news far beyond Great Britain. Interest came from the United States, Australia and other parts of the world. "I don't think it properly clicked until we started seeing things and people were saying, “Oh my God, look, you've made the New York news. You're in Australia,” and all that. I was like, 'What?'"

Sherrock had never expected her victory to become international news. At the time, one small detail even made her particularly happy. "I got my blue tick on Twitter, and that made my day. I'd wanted a blue tick for ages."

Meanwhile, one important detail risked being forgotten: Sherrock was still in the middle of the World Championship. A few days later, she had to return to the stage, this time against Mensur Suljovic. The stream of media requests continued, however. Sherrock herself barely knew when she should say no. “I think it was getting tiring anyway, but I didn't know when to say no. At the time, it was like, 'We'll just take anything and everything.'”

Eventually, Michael van Gerwen intervened. The then world number one made it clear that Sherrock needed rest to prepare for her next match. “It was actually Michael who said to Jason that I needed to stop, wasn't it? It was lucky he did, because we stopped all the interviews and I was able to focus and practise for the game against Mensur.”

When she returned to Alexandra Palace, another surprise awaited her. Sherrock had been unable to come up with a suitable nickname for some time. The announcer solved that problem for her on the spot: ‘Queen of the Palace’.

“To me, it was a complete shock, and it just made me smile. I'd wanted a nickname for ages. I was thinking, “I need a nickname. I don't know what to do or what to pick.' Then, when they announced it, I thought, 'That's pretty cool. I'm a queen!'"

The reception was even more impressive than during her opening match. “I actually couldn't hear the walk-on music over the crowd. It was so loud.”

Once again, Sherrock used the energy in the arena to her advantage. She defeated Suljovic and reached the third round. “The adrenaline and the electric atmosphere, with all the crowd cheering and supporting me. I don't really know how to explain it. It just lifts you and makes you believe you can do anything.” Her fairytale eventually ended in the third round, but the attention certainly did not disappear.

Back in Milton Keynes, Sherrock discovered how dramatically her daily life had changed. Before the World Championship, she could walk through the streets relatively anonymously outside the darts world. Suddenly, she was recognised everywhere. "It was weird because every time I went out, someone would say, 'Oh my God, you're the girl on the TV. You're the one who plays darts. You just won a game.' And I'd think, 'I won two games.' But, yeah, it was mad."

The constant attention eventually began to take its toll. “I literally couldn't go anywhere or do anything. Everyone was coming up to me, so I ended up staying inside for ages just so no one would come near me. It was full-on.”

Several years have now passed since that historic December. Sherrock has enjoyed new highs, but also difficult periods. “I've had some really good moments over those six years. I've had some highs and lows. I've hit a couple of nine-darters, done that thing at the Grand Slam and managed to play in the World Series. I've done so much in my career that I never thought I'd do."

At the same time, Sherrock acknowledges that expectations sometimes weighed heavily on her shoulders. “But I've also had some really low moments. I might come back from something thinking I could have done better, but if anything, it's made me bounce back harder. So I think it's been up and down, but I'll take the positives from it."

Even years later, Sherrock still finds it difficult to fully grasp what her performances at Alexandra Palace have meant for the sport of darts. “To be fair, I understand it to a degree. I don't think I fully understand it because people have said that the fact I don't understand how much I've done is probably a good thing.”

She also does not want to think too deeply about it during her active career. “They've said maybe when I finish playing darts, I should look back and realise what I've achieved. While I'm still in the sport, I should just keep going as I am. So, to a degree, I've realised what I've done, but I don't think I'll properly analyse it all until I've finished. I don't want to put even more pressure on myself, and I don't want to scare myself even more.”

Sherrock had never expected to become a role model. “I never thought I'd be a role model. I always thought it would be Lisa or Trina or someone like that. I never thought it would be me.”

These days, she notices the impact especially when women and children approach her. “I've had a lot of women and younger children come up to me and say, 'We've started playing because of you. We saw what you did, and it really inspired us.' That makes me feel so good about myself because I've inspired a whole generation to come on board and take up darts."

According to Sherrock, her breakthrough helped change an image that had surrounded darts for years. "Before, everyone just thought darts was a man's sport. They didn't realise women played it. But now, every girl and woman I see wants to get involved."

Even men tell her that her story motivated them. “Even men have come up to me and said, 'You know what? I watched you, and if you did it, I could do it.'"

Although Sherrock has been asked countless times to look back on that one night in December 2019, she is still not tired of telling the story. “To be fair, if you still talk about it, it means it's still relevant. The darts is still going well, and I'm still here, so, yeah, carry on.”

She prefers to save the full significance of her breakthrough for later. For now, Sherrock mainly wants to keep doing what she believed she had done that night: playing darts matches and trying to win them.