Battle of the sexes.

There was a rather tongue-in-cheek article in my Sunday paper suggesting that we could solve this problem of gender testing and all that by simply doing away with separate sex sporting competitions - men and women compete together. Like I say, I don't think it was meant to be taken in any way seriously. But it did get me thinking - there are obviously sports (using the word in its widest meaning) where physical ability is paramount, and here clearly men would be at a distinct advantage over women, but there are sports where men and women do not compete against each other despite there being no physical dimension - snooker and darts immediately spring to mind. Why not? Is this simply a hangover from the days when women (or at least "well brought up" women) did not indulge in such activities? Or is there a sort of male protectionism here - the thought of being beaten by a women being too horrible to contemplate?