An 18-year-old darts player has become the sport’s youngest World Championship winner, five years after predicting she would do so.
Beau Greaves of Doncaster defeated Kirsty Hutchinson 4-0 in the WDF World Championship final on Sunday.
Greaves, a darts prodigy who played her first match aged 10, said in 2017: “I think I could be world darts champion one day.”
On her latest win, she said: “I saved the best for last, I just played well.”
Speaking to the WDF after she beat Hutchinson, Greaves added: “I’ve never been as happy as I am in my life, to come off the stage and say to people I am a world champion.
“That can never be took away from me now. That is mine forever.”
She needed only 28 minutes to complete a remarkable victory, and she only dropped one leg in the process.
Greaves also had the highest average ever in a women’s world final (92).
This year’s tournament had a substantially improved prize pool, and the Doncaster teenager received a cheque for £25,000 as the winner.
Durham opponent Hutchinson was left shrugging her shoulders and laughing on the oche, simply unable to deal with Greaves’ relentlessness.
She won the first set in five minutes, dropping only one leg on her way to a 2-0 lead.
Hutchinson had little chance after that, as Greaves went on to win in straight sets without losing another leg.
Greaves had earlier won 3-0 in just over 30 minutes against Lorraine Winstanley in her semi-final on Saturday night.
She defeated Hungary’s Veronika Ihász 2-1 in the last 16 before defeating Aileen de Graaf of the Netherlands 2-0 in the quarter-finals.
The Doncaster College student came into the tournament in fantastic form, having won all three female’s singles tournaments at the Isle of Man Darts Festival last month.
She advanced to the semi-finals of the 2020 BDO World Championship, where she turned 16.
She told Quest TV: “I just feel so happy. There’s no words to describe what I’m feeling. I cannot believe what I’ve just won.
“I’ve lost some of the most amazing people in my life and just to win it for them, I just feel […], yeah.
“I’m done now! I don’t care what else I win. This is it, I’m just buzzing!”
The final was her 20th match win in a row.
Greaves was playing darts in local pubs by the age of 10, going straight in for her match and then straight home again.
Aged 13, she told the BBC: “I think anybody’s beatable.
“Any girl can play darts, it’s not like girls can’t play darts.”
Greaves’ win came at the inaugural WDF World Championship, which has replaced the now-defunct BDO event.
