GLAMOUR girls are in danger of being excluded from angling's showpiece Fishomania event after being dropped from televised darts and motor-racing.
Sky Sports’ Fishomania final, with its £50,000 jackpot, is the most notable angling event to have had models at its presentation.
But the decision to ban them at other major televised sports means their future in fishing is extremely uncertain.
Fishomania is owned by ace sports promoters Matchroom, who are also behind the Professional Darts Corporation which made its controversial decision recently.
F1 motor-racing has gone a similar route, and is expected to replace ‘grid girls’ with ‘grid kids.’ Boxing is under pressure to red-card its ‘card girls’.
Luke Riches, commercial manager at Matchroom, told Angler’s Mail: “We don’t actually recruit the girls for this event (Fishomania) – it is up to the sponsors to have what they want, and sometimes they have girls and sometimes they don’t.
“This year we don’t yet have a sponsor, but at the moment I would doubt that any company would want to risk using glamour girls for promotional purposes given the current climate of opinion,” he added.
Charlotte Wood (right) and Daniella Allfree (left) were noted for regular appearances at PDC darts events. They’re seen here with World No.1, Michael Van Gerwen, who had predicted the PDC would drop walk-on girls in order to be taken more seriously as a sport.
Fisho Girl lost 60% of her income
Daniella Allfree and Charlotte Wood are the two regular walk-on girls at the PDC darts events. They have attended Fishomania and were looking forward to being there this summer.
Charlotte told Angler’s Mail: “Losing our work has lost us 60 per cent of our annual income, as well as the prestige coming from such a major sporting event.
“The Professional Darts Corporation has no problem with us appearing and indeed have welcomed our presence and always treated us very well.
“It is the TV company that has decided to pull the plug possibly in response to the adverse publicity around the Presidents Club charity event a few weeks ago.
“But our events are nothing like that. There is nothing wrong in adding a bit of glamour and an attractive female presence to the stage.
“We earn a good living from what we do, are very happy to do it and there is nothing seedy about it.”
“Feminists say that they want women to have choices yet our choice, and that of many others like us, to work in a field we want to, has been taken away from us, and our livelihoods threatened.
“Me and Daniella did the Fishomania event the year before last and looked very attractive in pretty dresses.
“Much of what we do and wear is linked to the brand that is promoting the event and we do lots of stuff behind the scenes like socialising with people and handing out information.
“Daniella herself is keen on fishing and has appeared before on the front cover of Angler’s Mail, and we both have fished at the pro-celebrity darts fishing event.
“What we do is all good fun and totally harmless, and many of the female spectators enjoy us being there, and we really do not see why it should be banned,” added the 29-year-old from Leicester.
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