Legendary Lancashire Rose: Lisa Ashton wins maiden Women's World Matchplay crown, defeats Greaves and Sherrock en route

Lisa Ashton was the first woman to win a Tour Card at Q-School, is a four time Women's World Champion and now is a Women's World Matchplay champion. She defeated Beau Greaves and Fallon Sherrock en route to sealing the title.

Ashton will now return to the PDC World Darts Championship and amid all of the new faces and the rise of Beau Greaves, it is Ashton and Fallon Sherrock who she faced in the final still duking it out. A player who has been through injury struggles, Ashton continues to show incredible longevity and has added another string to her bow at the age of 54. She will also play at the Grand Slam of Darts later this year and being from just down the road is a popular local winner.

To start the tournament, Greaves looked the brightest prior to her defeat. ‘Beau N Arrow’ got her title defence up and running against Kirsi Viinikainen winning 4-1 with two 180’s and a 96 average and was the best of the eight in attendance in Blackpool. But Ashton set up a tie with Greaves after taking down Irish star Robyn Byrne 4-2 safely advancing.

On the other side of the draw amid protests at the venue, Noa-Lynn van Leuven returned to the Winter Gardens stage and as she said she would leave the noise behind and get to work and she did seeing off Lorraine Winstanley with a great modicum of ease winning 4-0 against the returning former Lakeside finalist.

Sherrock in reaching the semi-finals had it a bit more difficult. She was facing Gemma Hayter who was perhaps the player that none of the top names wanted early as she has been plying her trade successfully on the MODUS Super Series and keeps improving on the Women’s Series. Sherrock got a taste of that as Hayter came from 3-0 to force a deciding leg but Sherrock fell over the line to complete the semi-final line-up.

One that saw four-time World Champion Lisa Ashton rise firmly to the occasion. She ended Greaves’ two year reign as Women’s World Matchplay champion with a shock 5-3 win with the highlight being for ‘The Lancashire Rose’ a 140 checkout. She averaged 83 with Greaves doubling in particular being very much the problem. She missed 16 darts in all in losing out to Ashton and with it one of her many routes to the Ally Pally is gone.

While Sherrock was aiming to return to the place where she gained her Queen of the Palace moniker and she survived in a dramatic tie against Noa-Lynn van Leuven who won’t be returning yet to the Ally Pally. The Milton Keynes ace will be taking a sabbatical at the end of 2025 after a hectic few years and also health issues. But she put on a show in the semi-finals and some nerves too as she survived four match darts from Van Leuven in reaching her third final at the Winter Gardens.