Valiant Aaron Beeney served up a highly spirited losing performance in the second round of the PDC UK Open.

Beeney succumbed to a 6-2 defeat to the four-time BDO women’s world champion Lisa Ashton.

Beeney, a 37-year-old prison officer who earned his darting tour card in January last year, plays his darts for Kennedy’s in the Archway Darts League, while successfully competing at showpiece events on the professional circuit across Britain.

In the main-stage encounter, Aaron started tentatively on the trebles, falling 2-0 behind. But he recovered impressively to level the game at 2-2 with fine doubling in the following legs.

But his accuracy soon tapered off, leaving Ashton to reign supreme.

The Caledonian Road thrower ended with a worthy 86.7 three-dart average as he was thwarted 6-2 by 'The Lancashire Rose' who performed flawlessly averaging 100.3 with four maximum’s for the highest recorded average ever from a female player on TV.

On Twitter, after his exit, Beeney noted that his showing contained some of the best darts of his career, but that future improvement requires consistency, adding: “Lisa is amazing and I knew it would take something special to beat her today."