'Oldest player' Paula Jacklin calls for darts pay equality

Jacklin said there should be more prize money available to women

A grandmother believed to be the oldest woman to have competed at a world darts championship is calling for pay equality in the sport.

Paula Jacklin, 60, from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, is currently competing in the BDO World Championships at the Lakeside Country Club, in Surrey.

Speaking at the event, she said: "There is such a wide gap in prize money, which I feel is unfair to the ladies.

"Some of the ladies' averages are better than the men's."

Jacklin - who hit the headlines at the event in 2015 for walking on to the music of DJ Snake featuring Lil John - said: "Here, the ladies' prize money is £12,000 and the men's is £100,000.

"It's an achievement to be playing darts at this age, and at the level I'm playing at, [but] there should be more prize money available to women."

In 2014 a BBC Sport study into prize money found 30% of sports reward men more highly than women.

The biggest disparities in prize money were found in football, cricket, golf, darts, snooker and squash.

However, it found that in snooker and darts, women were allowed to enter and compete alongside men at world championships, provided they qualify.

The BBC has asked the British Darts Organisation for a comment but it is yet to respond.

Jacklin, who is seeded 11th for the Lakeside tournament, is due to play second seed Aileen De Graaf later.