A darts walk-on girl who still carries out the role at exhibition matches claims players want them back at PDC events after being brutally axed almost five years ago.
The PDC removed the glamorous models from their events in January 2018 when chairman Barry Hearn reluctantly conceded walk-on girls were "in danger of becoming incompatible with inclusive family viewing". Four-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld was one of those stars which opposed the change at the time and supported a petition to have the walk-on girls re-introduced.
While walk-on girls are still missing from the PDC World Championships and Premier League events, they are seen at exhibition tournaments.
Charlotte Wood, 34, says the game's top darts stars "don't understand" the decision to remove walk-on girls and would like to see them return. Wood said she lost 80 per cent of her income when the PDC made the decision to axe the models from their events.
"We speak to the players at exhibitions and at the time we had a massive support from players like Raymond van Barneveld, who couldn’t understand it either," Wood told Daily Star Sport.
"I speak to the players all the time at exhibitions and they don’t understand it either. But then they wouldn’t because as I said, we were there and then we weren’t. There was a petition started that got something like 50,000 signatures when Barneveld tweeted about it.
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"We had a lot of tweets off the players saying this shouldn’t be happening and asking why we’d lost our jobs."
Despite being part of the PDC circuit prior to the 2018 decision, Wood says that her and fellow walk-on girls who received a financial hit by the decision didn't receive an apology.
"No, no [no apology]," Wood added. "The players say 'It’s just ridiculous, you girls should be there.' The fans say it straight away when they see us, too. It’s been five years now and bless them, they’re still saying it.
"It is lovely but it’s hard. It’s not going to come back. I don’t believe for one second it was a darts fan who made the call. Even when I was doing the walk-ons they could have chosen other models to do the job. I didn’t have it guaranteed that it was always going to be me. I suppose that’s the risk when you’re self-employed."
