LISA Ashton aims to erase the memory of last season’s early exit from the BDO World Championships when she returns to the Lakeside tomorrow.

The Bolton darts player, who lost in the quarter-finals last year after making the previous three finals, is due on the oche at 3.30pm for her first-round match against useful Dutch qualifier Sharon Prins.

Ashton, aged 46, expects a tough challenge against the 28-year-old world number nine, but having twice beaten her before at the BDO finals and only losing one of their previous seven meetings she is confident of putting on a show.

“It should be a really good game,” said the Boltonian, who regularly plays in the Astley Bridge League.

“Sharon has been playing well this year, so she is definitely one of the toughest of the qualifiers I could have faced.

“It certainly won’t be easy, but I have only lost one of the seven matches we have played so hopefully I can make that one in eight.”

The Johnson Fold-based two-time former world champion admits she is still scarred by her last defeat at the Lakeside, when she lost to Trina Gulliver in the quarter-finals. After storming to the title in 2014 and 2015 and only narrowly losing in the 2013 final, it was a chastening experience, but not one Ashton will be dwelling upon.

“My form was a bit up and down last year after losing to Trina, but I have managed to turn that around in the last few months so I am coming back just at the right time,” she said.

“Playing at the Lakeside is obviously the pinnacle in the ladies’ game – it’s hard to describe what the feeling is like for us to play in a packed arena like that, at the same time as the men’s championships.

“So I was obviously gutted to go out early last time round.

“It was tough, the main thing for me was that I was disappointed with how I played, but I think it was just one of those days and I aim to put that memory to rest this year.”

If Ashton can plot a course through the early rounds she could conceivably come up against Gulliver again this year in the semi-finals, although world number one Aileen de Graaf, who is also in the bottom half of the draw, is her most likely last-four opponent.

It certainly seems that, if the Bolton grandmother is going to make it back to the final this year it will have to be the hard way. But she is not looking too far ahead.

“I certainly feel as if I am in the kind of form to be able to go all the way again, but it will obviously be difficult,” she added.

“The way I look at it there is no easy draw at the World Championships and you can only focus on your next opponent.

“Every route to the final is hard so I will just be concentrating on playing my way into the tournament and see how far that takes me.”