London

The first rule of attending a ladies’ darts match is do not offer to buy a round. It’s about the only utterance that will divert attention from the small piece of real estate around the treble 20. It’s also guaranteed to cost a small fortune. Tonight, Woodford Ladies are playing Waltham Forest with the destination of the Greater London Darts Organisation Super League Trophy at stake. Feature continues

It’s perhaps not surprising that stiff drinks are required to settle the nerves so I let the ladies go through their warm-ups and head to the bar with a hastily scribbled and extensive list of liquid refreshment.

The County Arms in Highams Park is a faded, cavernous barn of a place. Outside is a blank blackboard, while inside there is a St George’s Day display of alcopop bottles behind the bar and a dimly-lit area to one side housing a pair of pool tables and a darts oche. Television screens dotted throughout show a male darts match.

A small room upstairs contains three dartboards and a rather incongruous selection of keep-fit mats and partly deflated Swiss balls. Sitting on the small bar that’s grilled shut is the team’s portable radio cassette player, broadcasting the soothing, non-stop hits of Heart FM. It might not be the Lakeside, Frimley Green, or the Circus Tavern, Purfleet, but this is the home of Woodford Ladies, led by the redoubtable Jackie Saunders.

The pub’s locals do not appear to be aware that their ladies’ darts side, which includes three county players in the shape of Jackie, Dee Belcher and Tammy Mackenzie, are on the brink of glory. The four-woman team – the other is county selector Carole Belcher, require nine points from a possible 16 in their end of season double-header against Waltham Forest to clinch the title in their first campaign together. Standing in their way are players they’re familiar and friendly with from representing London at county level. It would not be stretching a point to say that these ladies are among the best female darts players in the capital.

‘I’ll play you for a fiver,’ hisses Sandra McElroy, who has spiky hair, wears a suitably voluminous darts shirt and managed a 100-plus checkout in her first game. Sandra’s partner Sue is also playing for Waltham Forest. She has darts in her gene pool; her aunt was one of the first players to win through the qualifying rounds of a men’s competition. ‘It was tough growing up with the expectation,’ explains Sue, who is renowned as a fearsome opponent in her own right. The steady stream of 100s and 140s she throws tonight are testament to that.

Six of the eight ladies playing tonight will be in Glamorgan the next weekend, representing London against their Welsh counterparts. Tammy, who is 27 and works for a local bookies, says the Glamorgan trip is one of the best of the year with some heavy drinking on the Saturday followed by the match on the Sunday. Sadly, she won’t be able to make it this time because her parents are retaking their wedding vows.
However, with nine county matches a season and expenses running at over £100 per match, sponsorship – as well as a decline in participation – is a thorny issue. All agree that lifestyle changes and families prevent more women from playing, while the late nights and travel (not to mention cigarettes and alcohol), don’t help either.