PDC Women’s Series: Laura Turner on her local league, financial strains and Beau Greaves | Darts News

May 12, 2023 admin

Laura Turner

Sky Sports Darts commentator

Laura Turner looks ahead to the next set of events at the PDC Women’s Series; the Premier League roadshow heads to Aberdeen for Night 16 next Thursday, with the Play-Offs returning to The O2 in London on Thursday May 25

Last Updated: 10/05/23 4:59pm

Laura Turner on playing in her local league, the financial strains of being a female darts player and the latest PDC Women’s Series

Sky Sports’ darts analyst Laura Turner opens up about playing in her local league in order to gain match practice, the financial burdens faced by many players and Beau Greaves dominating the PDC Women’s Series.

Turner was speaking ahead of this weekend’s competition, with over 110 players set to compete across two days at Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena.

The expansion will see 24 events held across six weekends in 2023, including a total prize fund of £240,000 – doubling the prize money per event to £10,000, but with no competitive action since February, Turner believes there will a few players out of practice on the oche.

“One of the things we’re lacking is that tournament practice,” she said. “I personally haven’t played in that many tournaments this year – one being the Women’s Series and I was out in Denmark a few weeks ago. It’s about getting into that flow after having a bit of a break.

“It’s been dominated by the likes of Beau (Greaves) and Mikuru (Suzuki) but I’m looking forward to it and hoping I can build up on what I did last time, and hopefully get some good results this weekend.”

Beau Greaves will be favourite to collect more prize money at this weekend's PDC Women’s Series in Milton Keynes

The PDC diary is jam-packed

In order to get competitive match action, Turner joined a local league in Surrey and has been actively playing in competitions each week.

She said: “Practice is great but nothing prepares you more than going out and playing tournaments. It’s about having the confidence when you walk into the room and think ‘I’m good’.

“You get four bites of the cherry because we have four tournaments over the course of a weekend, so if the first one doesn’t quite go to plan then hopefully you can build on it.

“A lot of the onus is on us as players to go out and find these tournaments because there are tournaments around, but, like anything, it’s about time because the PDC diary is absolutely packed as we do have 24 tournaments this year.”

Mikuru Suzuki ended Greaves' remarkable 70-match winning run with Event Three success earlier this year

Are there any financial pressures?

“I’m lucky in the fact that I’ve got a sponsor so it goes a long way to helping me personally get to these tournaments, but a lot of players don’t have sponsorships. It can be a costly exercise and there are over a hundred entries this time around so it’s about making the most of the opportunity being presented to us by the PDC and hopefully the prize money is good,” Turner said.

“Hopefully we will win some money and it balances itself out.

“When it comes down to sponsors, it’s about who you can get and who’s willing to support you and because we’re now playing on a platform with the PDC and Sky Sports, hopefully when this gets bigger and bigger then more opportunities develop for women, alleviating some of the financial pressures.”

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Turner believes the opportunities given by the PDC such as the Women’s Series will help the next generation of female players

Can anyone stop Beau?

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Speaking on Love The Darts, Greaves spoke about her experience at the World Championship and how she would do things differently next time

“She picked up both titles in Wales at the weekend, beating Lisa Ashton with a 113 average and she hit a 107 average in another match. She’s outstanding and is the one player we all have to aspire to be better in order to get anywhere near beating her because she is head and shoulders above everybody else in the field,” admitted Turner.

“She’s not unbeatable, but it will take a lot. The likes of Lisa, Mikuru, Lorraine Winstanley, Aileen de Graaf and Fallon Sherrock – they’re the top players pushing, but Beau kind of has those extra gears.”

Fallon is still in a position to make the Women’s Matchplay

Fallon Sherrock can produce massive averages under pressure, according to Turner

Sherrock will be competing on home soil in Milton Keynes, and since her last Women’s Series appearance she has landed a nine-darter on the Winmau Challenge Tour – becoming the first woman to achieve perfection in a PDC event.

She overcame Katie Sheldon, Lorraine Winstanley and Aileen de Graaf to lift the inaugural Women’s World Matchplay title in Blackpool last summer.

“Fallon kind of knows where her game dips and where it doesn’t and what she needs to work on. She’s still in a position to make the Matchplay and I know she will want to have a better run this weekend,” Turner said.

“Sometimes you get weekends where they just don’t go, but she’s another one of those players who can produce massive averages under pressure.”

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Watch the moment Sherrock won the first ever Women’s World Matchplay against Aileen de Graaf in Blackpool

Should the Women’s Series be ranked?

Lisa Ashton, Turner, Chloe O’Brien, Katie Sheldon and De Graaf took part at the inaugural Women's World Matchplay last year

“The Women’s Series is not seeded or ranked so you can get those tough clashes early on,” said Turner.

“I quite like the idea of ranking the top eight players to keep them separate. However, sat in eighth place in the race to the Matchplay is a player called Kim Holden and nobody would have particularly heard of her before, so you may not create the opportunities for new players like Robyn Byrne, Katie Sheldon and Chloe O’Brien from last year.

“They might not have the same opportunity if you keep it seeded. However, there is also an argument that if you keep it seeded those top eight have made that spot and they could potentially deserve to be seeded because they are the top players.

“I can see the argument from both sides so I’m firmly sitting on the fence and seeing what happens.”