The Walk-on girls phenomenon.

I’ve been meaning to do this walk-on girls blog for a while. Its become a darts phenomenon of late with new girls taking the reins in the Premier league. It all started back at the Blackpool Winter Gardens in 1994 and from there it has just snowballed with the girls gracing our screens for every tournament.

No doubt back in the day if it had been mentioned that girls would be walking on the players, it would have been laughed out of the building. Darts was for the workingman and there was no room for a ‘bird’ in the sport. But a lot has changed since then, with the likes of Anastasia Dobromyslova taking on the men at the Grand Slam and Sky introducing the girls in to darts with great success, and they have probably contributed to its rise on our screens.

Over the years there have been many Girls that have been on TV for the darts, with Karen Cookson and Sue Knight starting it all off back in Blackpool. The Players enjoy being walked on and the fans love it, although sometimes it gets a bit cringe worthy with some of the crowd who have had a few to many taking it a bit far.

I’ve never been comfortable with calling them ‘girls’ mainly because they are grown women, but maybe that’s just me. A lot of them are on Twitter and are always interacting with the darts family, which is good to see. Its become big business with girls from all over the country taking part, most start off has models through certain agencies, then make the jump to become Walk-on girls.

Two of the most famous of the girls are Nicola Cowell and Sarah Tunnicliffe. The Dynamic duo did most of the events in 2012 with huge success and we loved seeing them on our screens! Nicola now has her own modelling agency and is doing a lot on the Exhibition side of things and is a big crowd attraction and loves meeting the darts family one on one.

Now we all have our favourites, of the new girls, a lot of the darts family love Daniella Allfree. The Chesterfield stunner has been on our TV’s a lot lately and seems to be hot property at the moment in the Walk-on world. Nicola and Sarah are still firm favourites in the darting world too, although we haven’t seen them on the stage for a while.

I for one have a few. I’ve always liked Nicola Cowell, I’ve met her a few times and she’s fantastic. Of the new girls Beth Dust, who i have also met at the Grand Slam, Sammi Marsh, Melanie Do-Nasimento and Ali Drew all get my vote!

New girls are always coming in to the darts scene of late, with 2 new ladies Hayley Mac and Sydney Georgia Fennings making there debut this Thursday in Brighton.

And also we have the Hammerettes dance group. We only see them at the World Darts Championships over Christmas but they always add that little bit of an extra sparkle to the event.

So two questions now need answering.

1. Is all this Walk-on girls thing sexist?

I don’t think so, the girls enjoy the attention most of the time and they get plenty of work off the back of an appearance. Also some of the viewers are ladies and I’ve never heard or seen anyone say a bad thing about any of them.

2. Who will be the first Male Walk-on?

Sooner or later ladies darts is going to take off and hit the TV screens in a big way. There are plenty of talented women out on the darts circuit now and they deserve the chance to shine live on the big stage. With this surely they will need male Walk-On's?

If you Know someone who would like to get into Modelling or doing the Walk-On's then you can contact the following agency.

Twitter Names
 
@nicolacowell – Nicola Cowell
@Sarah_Tunni – Sarah Tunicliffe
@daniellaallfree - Daniella Allfree
@BethDustx- Beth Dust
@MissEricaWild – Erica Wild
@JBradder -Jessica Bradder
@nicolamoriarty – Nicola Moriarty
@Hazelosullivan1 – Hazel O'Sullivan
@missjacquiadams – Jacqui Adams
@irish_charlie - Charlotte Kearney
@JadeLeighHunt- Jade Leigh Hunt
@DebbiexShaw- Debbie Shaw
@Sammimarsh1 - Sammi Marsh
@HollyHiggins1- Holly James
@missAliDrew- Ali Drew
@MelanieDN- Melanie Do-Nascimento
@Hammerettes - The Hammerettes team page from the Ally Pally.
@ldeed- Laura Davis (Hammerette)
@sophieloumartin- Sophie Martin (Hammerette)
@Lornadsc (Hammerette)
@Rachaelosburn- Rachael Osburn (Hammerette)
@Abigailharriet- Abigal Harriet (Hammerette)
@SkyWalkOnGirls - Elite Angels
@walkongirls

　
And of course don't forget to look back through the rest of my Blogs for interviews with some of the girls.