Porter discusses Sherrock/Ashton effect: "They're fantastic ambassadors for the women's game"

As part of PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter's chat with Online Darts, he also discussed the recent success of Fallon Sherrock at the Nordic Darts Masters.

Porter spoke about her justifying her selection and how for him it was more important for her to play well in the Women's Series due to the expectation on her shoulder.

"It's always controversial with Fallon (Sherrock) because she's from a different dimension from the players at the top of the rankings. It was great to see her there and she performed to a fantastic standard and nobody can't tell me Michael wasn't worried in that final. But fair play to him, he showed what a champion he is," he said to Online Darts.

"To be fair what was more important to me was not Fallon just doing that, it was what she followed up with at the Women's Series where she's in a bit of a no-win situation because people expect her to do well. If she does well people just shrug their shoulders and go she's supposed to do well. But a couple of times she's maybe not done what she wanted to do in those more tour like environments Q-School and whatever."

He also discussed as part of that, Sherrock and Ashton both playing superbly at the recent Women's Series and the effect of that on the game.

"Her and Lisa like I mean I looked at it almost like a bit like two boxers going head to head. They are the aspirational figures for other women's darts players to follow. It's very likely Lisa will get the second spot if she does well at the upcoming Women's Series then the pair of them would be at Alexandra Palace and they're fantastic ambassadors for the women's game."

But are more Women's Series tournaments in the pipeline, the simple answer is yes.

"Our philosophy on it is that it's easy for people to say put more women in the World Championship. Well that's fine but that benefits one woman, having more activity benefits lots and lots of women's players. We want to have more activity, more regularly, more competitive tournaments - getting more people used to our environment."