Lisa Ashton’s major advantage vs Michael Smith and boost for female stars at World Darts Champs
Lisa Ashton and Michael Smith go head-to-head in the second game of the 2026 World Darts Championship on Thursday at Alexandra Palace, while there are a handful of other females in the tournament
Lisa Ashton is set to go up against Michael Smith at Alexandra Palace on Thursday(Image: Getty Images)
Lisa Ashton can beat Michael Smith and cause a shock on night one at the World Darts Championship, according to former darts star Paul Nicholson. Ashton, 55, is one of five females competing at this year’s Alexandra Palace tournament and the 2025 Women’s World Matchplay champion is up first.
Ashton is set to go up against former world No.1 Smith, who claimed the 2023 title at Ally Pally, in the second game of the evening on Thursday. She is ranked 149th in the PDC rankings heading into her fifth-ever game at the World Championship, while Smith has dropped down to 28th following an injury-ravaged season.
Despite there being 121 places between the two, Nicholson feels that Ashton has a genuine chance of causing an upset and beating Smith. He cited the fact Ashton will feel comfortable playing Smith as they are both from the North West and added that is the second best draw she could have got, behind facing Dave Chisnall.
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Speaking to Betway, Nicholson said: “Lisa is just a tremendous story. And in 2025, she’s won the women’s World Matchplay at Blackpool, which some of us thought was the missing piece of her career puzzle. She’s done everything. She’s won four Ladies World Championship titles at Lakeside.
“Then you start asking, what’s missing? And when we spoke to her in the summer, she said, I want to win a game at the Palace. She was pretty close a few years ago. She took the first set and absolutely blew him (Ryan Meikle) off the board. And you thought, It’s going to be Lisa’s turn. It didn’t work out.
“I have a sneaky suspicion that this year, multiple ladies will win. And I’m not going to say who they are because it could be a multitude of different options because Gemma Hayter is there and Noa Lynn Van Leuven is there. And Fallon Sherrock is playing Dave Chisnall. But this, with no lack of respect to Michael Smith, this is a winnable game because she’ll be comfortable with Michael.
Lisa Ashton faces Michael Smith tonight(Image: Pieter Verbeek/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
“She’d much rather play someone she knows than someone she doesn’t. And she knows Michael really well because they’re from the same neck of the woods. I think the best draw for Lisa would have been Dave Chisnall because they went to each other’s weddings.
“So I think for the next possible best draw, she’s really liking having a crack on Michael Smith. She’s on to no pressure, in my opinion, but this might be one of the last times she gets a crack, so she might want to just empty the tank and Michael Smith’s in trouble.”
Back in September, Michael Smith returned to the big stage for the first time in more than six months(Image: Kieran Cleeves/PDC)
Back in July, Ashton won the Women’s World Matchplay for the first time, defeating Robyn Byrne, Beau Greaves and Fallon Sherrock en route to claiming the title. That ensured she qualified for the Grand Slam of Darts, but that tournament ended in frustration despite drawing Gian van Veen, Josh Rock and Wessel Nijman.
Now, Ashton is eyeing up her first win on the Ally Pally stage, having lost her four previous first round matches against Jan Dekker, Adam Hunt, Ron Meulenkamp and Ryan Meikle.
Beau Greaves, Fallon Sherrock, Noa-Lynn van Leuven and Gemma Hayter are the four other female stars set to compete at the World Championship this year.
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We hear from both players in a bumper preview which includes features on most of the leading contenders, interviews with Wayne Mardle, Emma Paton, John Part and Polly James, a look at the unknowns who will be in action plus an oche-full of other great content. Buy here
Assessing whether any of the female players go far in the tournament and win multiple games, Nicholson added: “There’s a lot of chatter about Sherrock vs [Dave] Chisnall. A lot of people think Fallon can beat Dave because Dave hasn’t been in great form. But usually when Dave’s in this quandary, he finds something out. He’ll fix it somehow. That’s a very 50-50 game between Sherrock and Chisnall.
“I think Peter Wright will be too strong for Noa-Lynn van Leuven. I think Peter will just want to get his teeth into that first round and not have a slow start this year.
“Ashton, I think, against Smith, that’s a difficult one to call.
“Obviously, Gemma Hayter is a great player, but I don’t see her winning her game [against Josh Rock]. And then you’ve got Greaves. Now everyone is saying that Greaves is going to win that game [against Daryl Gurney]. I think she might, too. I think she might win it by three sets to two. I think it’ll be one of the best games of the first round.”
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