April 2005.
The Cork men’s and ladies’
teams retained their titles at the Tramore Inter-Counties
Challenge competitions at the
Spring Festival in O’Shea’s Hotel. The finals of
these events were nail-biting affairs with the men defeating Louth 4-3 and the
ladies getting the better of Kildare on a 3-2 scoreline.
Nicola O’Donovan won the
Ladies’ Open Singles on Day Two of the Festival and Darren O’Hea finished
runner-up in the Youths’ Singles.
Stephen O’Connor travelled
to Sligo for the INDO Grand Prix competition and lost out on a place to the
World Masters to Martin McCloskey from Donegal. Stephen got some
consolation on the following weekend when he won the Cork County Masters title
at Ardmanning House with a win over Nick Moore in the final.
Kay O’Carroll defeated ‘Super
Gran’ Ann McGann in the ladies’ final while Damian O’Hea defeated his
older brother, Darren, in the under-17 final. Ryan Courtney won the
under-13 competition.
In Cork City the CDPA
Division (1) Doubles Championship at the Capwell Sports Bar was won by Chris
Roberts and Anthony Austin from the Ringaskiddy Inn. They defeated Peter
Quinn and Martin Dineen in the final.
The Cork City Challenge Cup
is underway at the moment and a number of the fancied teams have bitten the
dust in the early rounds. Roisin Dubh (1) went out in the second
round to BallyReds (1) from the second Division while the Southside threw away
a 4-1 lead to Ringaskiddy Inn and were eliminated at the same stage of the
competition.
The only thing certain about
the outcome of the Cup is that there will be a new name on the trophy on May 9th.
as all previous winners have been knocked out at this early stage.
Both Eddie Cull and Nicola O’Donovan
won their matches in the annual Friendly International between the Republic of
Ireland and Northern Ireland in Roscommon on April 30th. Eddie
defeated Brian Cathcart while Nicola recorded a win against Angela McBlaine.
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The Cork captains, Eddie
Cull and Nicola O’Donovan, who won their matches for the Republic of Ireland
against Northern Ireland.
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March 2005
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Noel
O`Neill pictured with the McGrath family. |
The Cork
County Ladies’ Championships were held at the Fir Tree
Lounge Bar, Watergrasshill, on Sunday, March 13th.
Former
Irish International, Sandra Ahern from Cobh, was the star
of the tournament in winning both competitions with a
star-studded performance.
She
defeated Nicola O’Donovan to take the Singles title and
she teamed up with Kay O’Carroll to win the County
Doubles Championship.
In Cork
City the 5-a-side Leagues were completed with wins for the
Ringaskiddy Inn (Div. 1), BallyReds (Div. 2) and Harp (2)
in the 3rd. Division.
There was a
new competition and a new venue on March 21st.,
for the Denis McGrath Memorial Cup singles competition
which was organised by the CDPA in memory of the former
Cork captain who had died recently.
The first
prize of €300 went to Noel O’Neill (Horse Shoe) who
defeated Peter Quinn in the final.
On the
National scene Nicola O’Donovan won the Ladies’
Singles at the Rackett Hall Country Club in Roscrea while
the boyfriend, Eddie Cull, lost out in the quarter-finals
of the men’s event.
Young
Darren O’Hea from Bantry was in top form at the same
event in reaching the semi-finals of the Under-21
competition and the final of the Youths’ Singles.
February 2005
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|
Nicola
O`Donovan and Kay O`Carroll practising before the
final. |
The main headline in February
was the Cork ladies` magnificent achievement in winning
the Irish Inter-Counties
Championship for the third successive season and for the
fourth
time in the last five years.
They were absolutely
brilliant at the South Court Hotel in Limerick as they
went through the weekend dropping only three games in
their six matches and they rounded off their success with
a 4-2 victory over Wexford in the final.
It was a fairy tale story for
` Super Gran` Ann McGann who was making her debut on the
Cork panel this season. She
captained the Cork `B` team in the Munster Championship in
December and she ensured Cork`s victory in the Irish
Championship when she won the vital sixth game in the
final in Limerick.
The Cork men`s team lost to
Wexford in the quarter-finals of their event while our
youths
failed to qualify for the
knock-out stages when they narrowly lost two of their
three matches in the preliminary rounds.
Eddie Cull represented his
country for the second year in succession in the Nations
Cup
competition which was held in
Scotland on February 26th/27th.
Cork Darts Players
Raise € 7,000 for Hospice
Members of the Cobh Darts
League and the Cork City and District League organised a
Charity Challenge at Cobh
Ramblers` clubhouse on Saturday, February 26th., to raise
funds for Marymount Hospice in
the city.
It was a superb night with a
capacity crowd and a massive amount of € 7,000 raised
for
the worthy charity.
The Challenge was played on
four boards with singles and doubles games and after some very close contests the city
team won on a 16-14 scoreline.
Congratulations to Pat Hannon
and his committee from the Cobh League on organising a
very successful and enjoyable
evening.
Denis McGrath
Passes Away.
One of Cork`s greatest darts
players, Denis McGrath, died in January.
Denis enjoyed an illustrious
career with a number of teams in Cork City and
he captured many honours including the City Individual
Championship in the
1970/71 season.
His greatest achievement came
in 1982 when he captained the Cork County team to victory
in the Munster and Irish Inter-Counties Championships.
Cork won the first INDO
Inter-Counties event in the Dew Drop Inn in Kill, County
Kildare, with a 7-0 victory over Laois in the final and it
was Denis` proudest moment to become the first captain to
lift the famous trophy. We extend our
deepest sympathy to his wife and family.
