Beau Greaves has made darts history by becoming the first woman to win a PDC ranking title. The 22-year-old beat three former world champions at the Players Championship in Milton Keynes, seeing off Rob Cross, Gary Anderson and Michael Smith.

Greaves completed a nailbiting 8-7 victory over Smith in the final with a stunning 142 checkout. She said: “I can’t believe it. I was up a fair few legs and I started to think about it. It caught up with me.

“I don’t know whether I thought about being the first woman to do one. I can’t believe I’ve hit that. I can’t believe I took out that. I’ve had a great year, but I never thought I’d win one of these. Never.”

In the semi-finals Greaves produced a superb display to knock out Anderson, a two-time world champion, 7-1, having edged past Cross 6-5 in the last eight. “I am so happy I can’t even describe how I feel,” she said.

“To have won on the Development Tour, Challenge Tour, PDC Women’s Series, I am so proud of myself because I was struggling so bad at the start of the year, really bad. I can’t believe it.

“I know I’ve got the ability and the talent, but I’ve beaten Gary Anderson and I couldn’t believe it. Beating Michael, beating players that I watched growing up. It’s amazing and I feel really proud of myself. Now I need to kick on and keep doing it.”