The Professional Darts Corporation has announced that the 2022 Women's World Matchplay event will be broadcast on Sky Sports this summer.
In doing so, it'll mark the first-ever PDC women's darts tournament broadcast on live television. It's a huge milestone for women's darts players.
The tournament will yield a prize fund of over €30,000 with the winner also qualifying for the 2022 Grand Slam of Darts. There will be some high stakes come July 24th.
It'll be held in the Winter Gardens in Blackpool for an afternoon session, the infamous home of World Matchplay tournaments since 1994.
Eight women's darts players will be taking part in the event this summer. Qualification will be based on the women's Order of Merit before the date.
Pending Irish Interest
We enjoyed plenty of Irish in action at the PDC World Darts Championship gone by. The likes of Willie O'Connor, Brendan Dolan, Keane Barry and Steve Lennon to name a few.
The Women's World Matchplay now gives the chance for a few fellow country people to be unveiled to a wider audience, given they place highly in the Order of Merit.
Ireland's Robyn Byrne and Katie Sheldon both won all four games they played in the #WDFVirtualCup yesterday, defeating the representatives from France and Slovenia. They're now both sitting atop the Group 8 table with perfect 6-0 records. #Darts pic.twitter.com/sR8OqfaZJp
— Inside the WDF (@InsidetheWDF) October 10, 2020
One of those is 17-year-old Katie Sheldon. Hailing from Tallaght in Dublin, she placed sixteenth in the 2021 Order of Merit and created a bit of a name for herself.
Sheldon won the World Masters Girls Championship in 2019. Another Dubliner, 24-year-old Robyn Byrne from Mulhuddart, won the same tournament back in 2014.
She was two places behind Sheldon on the Order of Merit and is currently the highest placed Irish woman in the WDF rankings, having got to the final of the World Championship qualifiers.
Caroline Breen is another name that featured on the PDF's merit list. The duo of Fallon Sherrock and Lisa Ashton will be the names to beat if they continue their run of form.
A strong year for the Irish contingent before July could have their names in the hat for the televised Matchplay event, which would be fantastic to see.
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