Beau Greaves - 18-year-old from Doncaster ready to go arrow to arrow with world's best at PDC World Championship

The 18-year-old sensation will become the youngest female player to feature in a PDC World Darts Championship when she faces Ireland’s William O’Connor on Friday evening at Alexandra Palace in north London.

Around 3,000 fans will be packed into the arena for each of the event’s 28 sessions, beginning on Thursday, December 15 and culminating in the final on Tuesday, January 3.

A total of 87,000 tickets have been sold and the venue is gearing up to sell around 500,000 pints of beer over the course of the tournament, an average of five and a half per punter.

With fancy dress, exuberant behaviour and crowd singing positively encouraged, the Ally Pally stage is no place for the faint hearted, but Greaves has been building towards this since she began playing darts aged 10 and is not daunted by what awaits.

She told The Yorkshire Post: “It’s one of those things you have to look forward to and I am. I have always been one to be chilled about stuff.

“I haven’t played in front of that many people before, but that’s the biggest stage you want to be on.

“I think I’ll just do what I normally do, my family will be there and they’ll be a big help if I feel nervous or anything.

“It is just a game of darts, really, that’s what I’ll be thinking about. I have got three darts and he has got three and we’ll see what happens.”

Greaves - known as Beau and Arrow - is remarkably relaxed for a youngster preparing for the biggest match of her young life.

She stressed: “I am looking forward to having a nice time.

“I know I am there to play darts, but I do enjoy going away and enjoying the occasion.

“When I first started, my dad used to say ‘the minute you stop enjoying it, stop playing’. I think that’s the best way, you play your best darts when you are enjoying it. I am 18 and I am lucky to have the life I do have. I don’t see why I should ruin good occasions like this by being nervous.”

First opponent O’Connor, 36, has featured in five previous World Championships, reached the third round last year and is a former World Cup finalist.

Greaves watched the tournament draw live on Sky Sports and admitted: “When my name popped up, I couldn’t believe it, it was weird to see my name in with all those players.

“I was never too bothered about who I played; I was more happy to be there and I still am, but he [O’Connor] is a brilliant player, he is there for a reason and there’s no easy games.

“I’ll try not to think too much about it, we’ll just see what happens. That’s the attitude I’m going into it with, but I am excited.”

Despite his greater experience, O’Connor won’t be expecting an easy passage into a second round meeting with German star Gabriel Clemens.

Greaves won the World Darts Federation’s women’s championship in April this year and qualified for Ally Pally through the PDC women’s series order of merit.

Up against the planet’s best female players, the teenager claimed eight consecutive titles between August and October, winning a staggering 52 successive matches.

She recorded a three-dart average of 90 in 16 of them and set a women’s record of 107.86 during one title-clinching defeat of Fallon Sherrock.

That is world class, but was made all the more remarkable by the fact Greaves is still recovering from a bout of dartitis, which struck in 2020 and led to her, temporarily, losing her love for the sport.

The condition affects players’ fine motor skills and can lead to a loss of technique or the inability to release a dart.

At worst, it can be career-ending and, despite being on the mend, Greaves feels she is still not firing on all cylinders.

“I am still coming back into darts,” she reflected. “At the start of the year my dartitis was still quite bad.

“It got better throughout the year, but I am still trying to take it slow. I have been winning a lot of stuff and it looks like I am back to 100 per cent, but I am still doing my best with it.”

A strong showing at the worlds would increase calls for Greaves to attend next month’s Q School, in a bid to win a PDC tour card.

“I don’t know,” she admitted of what comes next. “I have been asked, but I think at the minute I am a bit too inconsistent; some of my averages are really good and some are really poor.

“That’s just the way darts is, but I think I need to get more consistent before I think about going to Q School. We’ll see, I think it will be a last-minute decision, but maybe at some point.”

Still living with her parents and siblings in Doncaster, Greaves still experiences the same issues every teenager does. “Sometimes you are on a proper high and you come back and mum is having a go at me about something,” she laughed.