Club tells dart women to ‘go and do knitting’ (From The Bolton News)

Club tells dart women to ‘go and do knitting’

12:30pm Sunday 22nd November 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share

A DARTS team abandoned their match — after two women supporters were refused entry and told to do their knitting.

Halliwell Superleague Darts team hired a minibus to Heywood for a league game at Hopwood Unionist Club.

But when the group arrived they were told their female companions — Joanne Williams and Jamie Butterworth — would not be allowed into the games room. Wayne Taylor, a spokesman for the team, which plays across Lancashire, said: “We went to the bar area to find out where the darts match was being played.

“Somebody turned around and said I am very sorry but no woman are allowed in here.

“Thinking they were joking, I said can you say that again? They told me it was the club rules. No women were allowed in the games room.

“One of the women was at the bar. She tried to talk about it amicably to say we needed to sort it out.

“Somebody behind the bar, an official person working in the place, said ‘well you can go through to the back room and do your knitting’.”

The team was so appalled by the club’s attitude they refused to play if the women in their party were excluded.

Mr Taylor, aged 36, from Heaton, said: “Although Jamie and Joanne were not actually playing, they are very much part of the team.

“They record the scores and officiate. Without them we were not prepared to play.”

He added: “I can’t believe this can happen in this day and age. The rules are so archaic. It felt like we were walking back in time to the 1900s.”

Miss Butterworth, aged 21, who works with Mr Taylor at Darts Corner in Belmont, said: “I was shocked. I’ve never come across anything like it before.”

The club declined to comment.

lucy.ewing@ theboltonnews.co.uk

• Print
• Email
• Share