This world champion is not getting rich

Press, 24 February 1986, Page 8

This world champion is not getting rich

New Zealand’s champion woman darts player is enjoying fame, if not fortune. ROBIN CHARTERIS reports from London.

Being one of the top women professional darts players in the world, while exciting and exhilarating, is also expensive and exhausting, says New Zealander, Mrs Lilian Barnett, who recently won the World Women’s Singles title in Britain. The 43-year-old Timaru woman has found the financial rewards of international success hardly match those of men’s darts. The strains of constant travelling and being away from home sometimes make her query her decision to continue playing overseas. Lilian Barnett, originally from the Bay of Islands, took up competitive darts only 12 years ago. Neighbours in Lower Hutt were impressed by the skill she showed playing around the board with her three children.

They prevailed upon her to join their team and, within a week, she was picked to play for Lower Hutt.

Apart from a three year lay-off, she has played regularly ever since. In 1984, she won the Pacific Cup Ladies’ Singles and Pairs titles, the Civic Masters title in New Zealand and the Royal Hawa lian

Ladies’ Singles championship.

’ Late last year came the highlight of her darts career when, as New Zealand’s representative, she beat an international field to win the World Masters title in London, and number one ranking.

She has continued her good form since with a third placing in the British Open and outright victory in the Mediterranean Open at Torremolinos, in Spain, earlier this month. Although her World Masters title win gave her prize money of S4OOO, and most other appearances almost guarantee her some prize money, Lilian Barnett finds women’s darts competitions are not making her rich. “There is good money these days in darts, but only for the men,” she says. “In the Men’s Masters last December, for example, Alan Bristow won $21,000. “In the Mediterranean

Open, I won just $520 and that didn’t even cover my expenses of going there.” While staying with friends in a London hotel owned by her British manager, Lilian Barnett does odd jobs between darts appearances in Britain to help pay her keep. She keeps fit by running with two large labrador dogs around Hyde Park each day. Her decision to stay in Britain after the World Masters’ Championship was to extend her international experience in the game, before appearances in more lucrative tournaments in the United States later this year. She is trying to obtain a work permit to allow her to stay longer in Britain, but admits to missing family and friends at home, especially in the middle of a British winter.

She has found competitive darts in Britain rather different from

home. "The standard is higher over here, even though New Zealand women play lovely darts. One major difference is that the women here are trained to play in public before large audiences and that takes quite some getting used to.

“And here, as foreigners, we play in front of biased crowds who are always cheering for the locals. We’ve got that to worry about, plus the fact you’re playing for your country, and also the pressure of the opponent herself.”

Lilian Barnett admits to a great deal of pride in her achievements, and pleasure at having done so well.

“There I was in Torremolinos Airport the other day, all alone and not knowing a soul, when a 15-year-old English kid came up to me and asked if I was the World Masters’ champion. “The same thing happened with a group of youngsters at Croyden. They all went off screaming that there was the darts lady from television. “That sort of thing does make up for much of the strain, I suppose.”