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Cork
News _ August 2004 - December 2004
On
the weekend of December 4th/5th. Cork players travelled in
force to the Bellbridge House Hotel,
Spanish Point, County Clare, for the Munster Inter-Counties
Challenge and they emerged victorious from all the events.
Joe
Collins and John Kidney won the Men`s Open Doubles with a win
over another Cork pair, Nigel Connell and Nick Moore, in the
final and it was another all-Cork final in the Ladies` Open
Singles with Nicola O`Donovan defeating Margaret Barry.
In
the Inter-Counties competitions Cork won all four events, Men
`A` and `B` and Ladies `A` and `B` The CDPA
completed their K-Cabs Team Fours Championships at Ardmanning
House on Monday, December 6th., with wins for Roisin Dubh (Div.1),
Bally Reds (1) in Div. (2) and Harp (2) in Div.(3).
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Harp
(2) who added the Team Fours Championship to the
League title won last month. |
Shane
Mullins (Cork City) and Kenneth Donovan (Ballycotton) joined
the ranks of Cork players who
have been selected to represent the Republic of Ireland at
International level when they travelled to Kilkenny on
December 12th. and qualified at the final Under-21
trials. They will now represent their
country at the Youth Friendship Trophy next May.
The
CDPA organised their annual Christmas Doubles at the
Ardmanning on December 13th. and the `Open Draw` event threw
up some very interesting pairings. The
winners were Denis Madden (Chimes) and Eric Dunlea (BallyReds)
who defeated Noel Fouhy
(Arches)
and Peter Glavin (Lough Tavern) in the final. The Ladies` Open
Singles was won by Kay O`Carroll who defeated Nicola O`Donovan
by 3 legs to 2.
The
month of November was certainly one of the busiest and most
eventful periods
on
the Cork darts calendar.
The
first competition was the Cork Charity Cup at Ardmanning House
which is held
every
year in aid of the Senior Citizens Christmas Hamper Appeal.
The
3-a-side competition was won by Joe Collins, Shane Mullins and
Stephen Keating
while
Nicola O`Donovan won the Ladies` Open Singles.
More than €1,000 was
raised by the players on the night for the charity.
Nicola
travelled up to Mohill the following day and won the Ladies`
Singles at the INDO-
We
had a new venue for the Cork County `Gold Cup` Singles on
November 14th. with the
final
county-ranked competition being held at Sarsfield`s Club in
Glanmire.
Jason
Kavanagh won the Men`s Singles for the fourth time in six
years and Nicola O`Donovan once again emerged as the winner of
the ladies` competition.
Darren
O`Hea won the Youths` under-17 title while Declan Harrington
won the under-13 event.
Unique
Achievement by the `Cull Family`
At
the end of the Cork Rankings season Eddie Cull, his
girl-friend Nicola O`Donovan, and
Eddie`s
younger brother Steven topped their respective sections of the
County Rankings
and
they will now captain the Cork teams in the forthcoming Irish
Inter-Counties Championships.
On
November 20th. a group of our young hopefuls travelled to
Limerick to compete in the trials for
the Republic of Ireland Under-21 team. They enjoyed the
experience and they will be heading to Kilkenny on December
12th. for the final trials. Good luck, lads !
The
final sessions of all three divisions of the Cork City and
District League were played at
Ardmanning
House on November 22nd. and the `full house` witnessed a great
night of darts. Rosie`s Bar from
Carrigaline won the Mick Fowler Memorial Trophy (Div.1), the
2nd. Division title went to Forde`s (1) and the Harp (2) were
the winners of Division (3).
October 2004
As usual the Cork players travelled
in force to O`Shea`s Hotel in Tramore for the Autumn
Darts Festival on the first weekend
of October.
Cork dominated the Mixed Pairs
Championship with three pairings winning through to
the semi-finals. Peter Quinn and Kay
O`Carroll lost in the final to Benny Grace and
Maureen Kelly while the beaten
semi-finalists were Joe Collins and Sharon Buckley and
Tom Ryan and Bronagh Mallon. Anthony
Kidney and Ann Watkinson from East Cork
were also in the prize money.
Sharon Buckley and Sandra Ahern
were defeated in the quarter-finals of the Ladies` Open
Singles and Eddie Cull reached the
last eight of the Men`s Singles.
Sandra Ahern was very unlucky for
the `Player of the Year` Award - she was pipped by
Maureen Kelly from Carlow by one
point.
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One of the highlights for the
Cork contingent in Tramore was Peter Quinn down on bended knee proposing to his girlfriend
Carolyn. That was probably more nerve-wrecking than being on stage at the City West.
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Eddie Cull continued his good run
of form by taking the Men`s title at the Cork County
Grand Prix in the Munster Arms Hotel
in Bandon. Nicola O`Donovan won the Ladies` title
while Thomas Harrington and Paul
Galvin won the Youths` competitions.
Later in the month Eddie Cull went
on to represent his country in the Europe Cup over in
Finland and he also competed with
Nicola O`Donovan in the World Masters and Lakeside
play-offs in Bridlington.
Peter Quinn was one of the stars
at the Sky Bet World Grand Prix in Dublin and was very
unlucky in losing to Kevin Painter.
The Jimmy `Tash` Madden Memorial
Trophy was held at Ardmanning House, Togher, on
Halloween and resulted in wins for
Eddie Cull who defeated Joe Collins in the men`s final
and Sandra Ahern who defeated Sharon
Buckley for the ladies` title.
The youths` competitions were won
by Steven Cull (under-17) and Declan Harrington (u-13).
Peter
Quinn`s magnificent achievement in qualifying for the PDC World
Grand Prix
was
the main headline in all of the Cork newspapers during the month
of September.
From
an entry of almost three hundred players at the City West Hotel on
Sunday,
September
19th., he became the first Cork player to win through to appear in
a
major
televised event on Sky Sports. He
will now compete against the world`s top players at the same venue
at the end of October.
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Phil
Jones (PDC) congratulating Peter Quinn
from
Rosie`s Bar, Carrigaline.
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The
first competition of the new season in the city was the Tom
O`Sullivan Memorial
Shield
which was held at Ardmanning House on September 6th. More
than 80 players competed on the night with victory going to the
Cork captain, Joe Collins, who defeated Anthony Murphy in the
final.
The
ladies` title was won by Kay O`Carroll who defeated Sandra Ahern.
The
CDPA Autumn Doubles Championship was held on September 10th. and
the
first
prize was won by the Roisin Dubh pairing of Shane Mullins and
Stephen Keating.
The
runners-up were Tom Ryan and Paudie Dineen from the Goblet.
Nicola
O`Donovan and her boyfriend, Eddie Cull, were on the points
trail again at the
Coachman`s
Inn, Roscommon, on September 18/19th.
Nicola
won the Cat. (2) Ladies` Singles on Saturday and reached the semis
of the
Cat.
(1) singles on Sunday while Eddie also reached the semis on
Sunday.
The
Cork City and District League commenced on Monday, September
27th., with
twenty
seven teams entered and these teams have been graded into three
divisions.
August
2004:
On
the weekend of August 14th./15th., local organiser Chris Curran put
together
a
great programme of darts at the Mallow Park Hotel.
Thirty
two players, including the best of the local talent and a host of
top internationals
from
all parts of the country, were invited to compete on Day One for
four places against
Wayne
Mardle, Peter Manley, Alan Warriner and Ronnie Baxter, in a
round robin on
Day
Two with big prize money at stake.
After
some great matches on the Saturday the following players won through
to take
on
the `Big Boys` the following day: Benny Grace (Kilkenny), Eddie Cull
(Cork), Tom
Kirby
(Kildare) and Steve McDonnell (Louth).
The
players were divided into two groups for the round robin with two
qualifiers and
Peter
Manley and Wayne Mardle easily won through from Group A but Benny
Grace
caused
an upset in the other group when he defeated Alan Warriner and went
through
to
the semi-finals with Ronnie Baxter. Tom Kirby also defeated
Warriner.
Wayne
Mardle went on to win the tournament with wins over Ronnie Baxter (5-3) in
the
semis and Peter Manley (8-7) in the final. Peter Manley had beaten
Benny Grace
5-1
in the other semi-final.
The
only question about the weekend was "where were the
fans?". After a
lot of hard work by Chris Curran and his colleagues to put on a
first-class show up in North Cork the local supporters were very
conspicuous by their absence.
One
good thing that came out of the weekend, however, was the emergence
of a new
talent
as M.C. When international M.C., Russ Bray, pulled out of the
tournament late
in
the week `Honorary Corkman` Darrell Hodgson stepped into his shoes (or should I say
his
tuxedo) and took to the job like a duck to water.
Well
done Darrell - we are looking forward to seeing you on Sky Sports
soon.
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Peter
Manley, Wayne Mardle, Chris Curran, Darrell Hodgson,
Ronnie
Baxter and
Benny Grace
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Denis
Wins His First County Title
Denis
O`Regan from Buttevant in North Cork won his first Cork County
Singles title
when
he defeated Pat O`Flaherty 4-2 in the final of the Cork County Men`s
Singles
Championship
at the Fir Tree, Watergrasshill, on Sunday, August 29th.
The
beaten semi-finalists were Jason Kavanagh and Ciaran Feiriteur.
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Denis O`Regan. |
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