One of the more interesting sporting draws we will encounter over the course of 2019 is the one for the BDO Women’s World Championship, a tournament which gets underway at the Lakeside Country Club in Surrey on Saturday.
Lisa Ashton won the title for the fourth time in five years 12 months ago and after a creditable effort in the PDC World Championship last month she is here to defend her title. 15 leading women will be out to dethrone her.
Recent Winners
2018 – Lisa Ashton
2017 – Lisa Ashton
2016 – Trina Gulliver
2015 – Lisa Ashton
2014 – Lisa Ashton
2013 – Anastasia Dobromyslova
2012 – Anastasia Dobromyslova
2011 – Trina Gulliver
2010 – Trina Gulliver
2009 – Francis Hoenselaar
The Format
As with the male event, the tournament is played over the set format but the length of the matches are criminally short it has to be said. The first round, quarter finals and the semi-finals are only the best of three sets before the champion is determined on the second Saturday in a final which will be played over the best of five sets.
Top Half
Lorraine Winstanley arrives into the tournament as the leading player in the world although that is primarily because Lisa Ashton has not been chasing ranking points around the globe. Nevertheless she is the top seed and is in the top half as a result. The other three seeds in this half are former champions Anastasia Dobromyslova and Trina Gulliver as well as the extremely competent Aileen de Graaf.
Casey Gallagher would be associated as the leading unseeded player in the top half of the draw while Paula Jacklin is pretty experienced on this stage. Laura Turner and Karolina Podgorska make up the top half but it would be a surprise if the four seeds are not the quarter finalists in this section.
Bottom Half
It is in the bottom half of the draw where Lisa Ashton goes in search of a fifth title from. Not chasing the ranking points might have done her a favour as she’s in the same half as Sharon Prins and the perennial disappointment at this tournament in Deta Hedman. BDO World Trophy winner Fallon Sherrock probably rates as the leading danger among the seeds.
There are two qualifiers who stand out among the unseeded players in this tournament. Corinne Hammond is a former finalist in this event and will fancy going close again while Mikuru Suzuki was so close to qualifying for the PDC World Championship and that makes her dangerous. Roz Bulmer and Maria O’Brien complete the draw.
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Betting
Anyone who saw the performance Lisa Ashton delivered in the PDC World Championship will know the only person who can stop her here is Lisa Ashton. She averaged 107 in the first set and was still comfortably over 85 at the end of the four sets. Women’s darts has improved dramatically but nobody in this field will cover that standard for four matches. Ashton is comfortably the heaviest scorer in the game so it will take a horrendous show on doubles for her to be beaten even over these sprint distances. The only big title Ashton didn’t win in 2018 was the World Trophy but she’s so dominant she should be long odds on here. We can get 11/10 and I’ll plough into that.
In the other half of the draw you would think the winner of the potential quarter final between Anastasia Dobromyslova and Aileen de Graaf will go on to make the final and given that the Dutch woman has won their last two meetings and is three times the price in the outright market I’ll take a punt on her at 16/1. De Graaf has really come good again in the second half of the year and the beauty of backing her is she has a 50% record against Ashton were the two to meet in the final. She has won 10 and lost 10 against her. Nobody in the field has a better record against Ashton than that. She holds a winning record against anyone she has played twice apart from de Graaf. She’s worth an each way bet if only to be able to relax in the final if she gets there.
Tips
Back L.Ashton to win BDO Women’s World Championship for a 6/10 stake at 2.10 with Spreadex
Back A.de Graaf to win BDO Women’s World Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Betfair (1/3 1-2)
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