BOLTON darts star Lisa Ashton will play against the men in next month’s PDC World Championship.

Ashton, who has won the BDO women’s world championship four times, qualified to play in the men’s version of the PDC competition by winning the UK and Ireland Women’s World Championship qualifier in Milton Keynes yesterday.

It will be the first time she has played in the men’s world championships where she will perform on the famous Alexandra Palace darts stage.

The 48-year-old from Johnson Fold produced an outstanding performance in the qualifying tournament.

Out of the 120 competitors who took part, she was the dominant force, dropping just five legs and culminating in a 6-3 victory over Maria O’Brien in the final.

Ashton, who is a regular feature on Bolton’s high-standard darts league scene, will enter the PDC World Championship alongside the men at the first-round stage which will guarantee her a minimum of £7,500 in prize money.

Nicknamed the Lancashire Rose, she is the highest-placed player in the BDO women’s rankings after a superb year which has seen her win nine tournaments.

She will not be the only woman at the world championships where she will be joined by three-time women’s world champion, Anastasia Dobromyslova, who qualified by winning the Rest of the World qualifier in Dusseldorf last week.

Russian Dobromyslova is one of only two women to have previously competed in a PDC World Championship – Gayl King is the other – making Ashton only the third female to do so.

Female players were guaranteed two places at the world championship earlier this year in a change to the competition.

“So many ladies have entered over there [Dusseldorf] and here,” Ashton told Sky Sports.

“There’s been so many good games here and it just shows how the ladies are going from strength to strength.

“I’ve just got to play my game and whoever I draw I’ll just try my best. It’s got to be Gary (Anderson) or Michael (van Gerwen), they’re the best two.”