Darts in Ireland

Young Shane Mullins (Roisin Dubh) recorded the best finish of 153 on the night. The finals of all three divisions of the Mid-West Cork League were held in the Munster Arms Hotel, Bandon, on December 12th. Division (1) was won by the Crossmahon Bar who defeated the Millwheel 4-2 in the final. The Corner House had a 4-2 win over Jimmy G's in the final of Division (2) while O'Hara's from Bandon won the 3rd. Division title with a victory over O'Donovan's (Ballinadee). A ladies' singles competition was also organised on the same night with victory going to Sharon Buckley (Millwheel) who defeated Sheila Ring (Half Door).

Eddie Cull - Mission Accomplished !

At the start of 2003 Eddie Cull from Cork City set himself a target to be ranked in the top four of the Irish National Darts Organisation's Rankings List at the end of the year.

Eddie started off with an excellent run with the Cork team in the Irish Inter-Counties Championships in Limerick and then he toured the country for the rest of the year to compete in all of the INDO and County Open competitions. In between he travelled abroad to gain experience in the Dutch and French Opens and he still had time to pick up a number of singles titles in his native city.

When the rankings season ended with the Waterford Open on December 6th. Eddie had picked up points in no fewer than twelve of the sixteen rankings tournaments and had climbed to number two in the country behind the Irish captain, Sean McGowan (Sligo). Eddie has now qualified to represent his country in the Nations Cup in February as well as the World Masters, the qualifying rounds of the World Championship and the Europe Cup in Finland later in the year. He will also play for Ireland in any other international event that may be organised over the next twelve months.

They say that behind every good man there is a good woman. In Eddie's case there was a good woman, his girl friend Nicola O`Donovan, and another good man, his brother Steven. They travelled around the country with him and they made their own mark on their respective rankings lists. Nicola ended up at number three on the ladies` list while Steven is number four on the youths.

Congratulations - on a lot of hard work well done !

John Paul and Steven in the North

John Paul Dowdall and Steven Cull were in outstanding form for the Republic of Ireland team in the Youth Friendship Trophy in Ballymena. They were competing against some of the top players from Scotland, North of England and Northern Ireland and they both won two of their three matches. John Paul was also on the winning team in the 3-a-side event and he reached the quarter-finals of the Singles. Well done, lads !

Cork Players Called-up for International Duty

On the May Bank Holiday weekend brothers Eddie and Steven Cull will compete for the Republic of Ireland in the Friendly International against Northern Ireland at the Rynn Valley Hotel, Mohill, Co. Leitrim.

While Steven made his debut for the youths' team in the corresponding fixture in Derry last year Eddie will be receiving his first 'cap' for the senior squad on May 3rd. This time last year Eddie set his sights on getting into the Republic's 'top 15' by travelling around the country to the ranked tournaments. Now that he has achieved that 'goal' his next aim is to make the 'top five' and play in the Europe Cup and World Cup.

Steven Cull has also been selected for the Under-21 International Tournament in Northern Ireland at the end of May and he will be joined by fellow Corkman, John Paul Dowdall, who captained the youths' team in Mohill two years ago. John Paul won the National Youths' Singles in 2000 and he captained Cork to win the Irish Youths' Inter-Counties Championship in 2001. Best of luck, lads!

Photo: Steven Cull, John Paul Dowdall and Eddie Cull.

Cork Girls Shine in Sunny Tramore

The sun was shining, the 'craic' was mighty and the Cork girls turned on the style as they captured the Tramore Inter-Counties Challenge at the Spring Festival at O'Shea's Hotel.

With the Munster and Irish titles under their belt the Cork team were out to prove that they were the best in the country by taking this inaugural event.

In their first match they defeated a very strong Wexford team 3-0 and they came from behind to beat Kildare 3-1 in the semi-finals. Cork completed their hat-trick of victories with a 3-1 win against Kilkenny in the final.

While all of the Cork players threw extremely well the experience of Eileen O'Neill (left) was the difference beating winning and losing. When the 'chips were down' she rose to the occasion and was, without doubt, the 'Player of the Tournament' and it was fitting that she should clinch the title with the last dart in the final.

While Eileen O'Neill has always been a star in the past for Cork, young Nicola O'Donovan is destined to be a star of the future. In the Ladies' Open Singles in Tramore she eliminated many top-class players, including Breda Doyle (Wexford) and Maureen Kelly (Carlow), en route to the final where she was very unlucky to lose to the experienced Susan McKenna (Kildare).

Cork players, Kay O'Carroll and Margaret Barry, were also in the prize money in this event while Jason Roche reached the semi-finals of the youths' competition.