Darts finalist ready to follow in the footsteps of others at Blackpool Winter Gardens

Rebecca Allen is preparing to follow in the footsteps of some of her heroes once again when she returns to Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.

Alongside hosting the World Matchplay over the next week, the venue is also staging darts’ Girls Series final on July 26.

This will see 17-year-old Allen, who is nicknamed Sparkles, take on Macy Gibbons after the pair won an event each at the recent final weekend of the regular season.

“I’m feeling good and pretty confident at the minute going into Blackpool,” she said.

“It’s mad how you get to play at the same venue as Luke Littler and all these crazy good darts players, so it sort of puts in perspective that you’re doing good.

“Last year we got to watch the rest of the women playing. Seeing Beau Greaves, Fallon Sherrock and Lisa Ashton on the same stage was great.

“There was a time when it was men only at the Winter Gardens, and if you were good enough to make the tour then you’d have a chance as a woman, so it’s nice to see that they’ve got the women's and girls finals there now.

“It’s really inspiring. If I’m getting the opportunity to do it now, I really want to do it when I’m in the professional women’s game as well.

“Now, it’s all on our shoulders, and we need to prove why they gave us all the opportunities in the first place, and hopefully give us more.”

Allen, who is sponsored by Winmau, admits a competitive edge while growing up in Carlow gave her the desire to improve at darts and drive her forward into the position she’s in now.

“When I first started I was quite rubbish,” she admitted.

“I was one of the only girls playing around here, and then the boys kept on beating me, which I really didn’t like. When I won one or two games against them, they’d be fuming.

“I’m really competitive in most things I do, so when I saw other people win, I wanted to do it too. I kept practising until I was able to.

“I played in the Ireland team back in 2022, but I wasn’t great back then, and it went really bad. Then in 2023, I started going over to England more, I went to the Euro Cup and made the semi-final, I then went to the World Cup and made the final, so I thought: ‘Okay, maybe I’m actually getting somewhere.’

“I first joined Winmau then as well, so it was a really big confidence boost to have people willing to put effort into you.”