Darts in Ireland

The big news in May was that Cork will have nine representatives in the Grand Finals of the Ireland Players’ Championships in Kilkenny next August.

The final round of matches was played in Dublin on May 20^th and while Joe Collins and Peter Quinn had qualified prior to this for the Main Event other players had some work to do before they clinched their places in Kilkenny. On the day Denis O’Regan and Declan Crowley did enough and held on to their positions in the Top 32.

In the Youths’ Championship Ryan Courtney and Paul Donovan have qualified in the Top 8 and they will be competing for a prize fund of € 500 in the finals while three other players, Dean Forde, Stephen Nyhan and Damian O’Hea, finished in the next eight on the Rankings List to qualify for the Plate competition.

In INDO events Nicola O’Donovan won the Ladies’ Singles in Mohill while Eddie Cull lost in the final of the Men’s Pairs with his partner Sean McGowan.

Damian O’Hea was beaten in the semis of the Youth’ Singles on the same weekend.

Damian and Gerald Murphy represented the Republic of Ireland at the end of the month in the Youth Friendship Trophy which was won by England’s Northern Youth team in Derry.

The Republic of Ireland finished in second place ahead of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

It was a Brown Derby final in the Joe Hennessy Memorial Doubles with Alan Ramsell and Ricky O’Regan defeating Jim O’Callaghan and Anthony Murphy at Forde’s Bar and the Derby continued in winning mode when they captured Division (1) of the Ardmanning 4-a- side Knock- out Trophy. Division (2) was won by the Harp (2) while Ma Dullea’s had a long overdue victory in the 3^rd. Division.

April 2007.

Joe Collins is Golden Arrows Champion

After ten years of trying Joe Collins from the Millwheel Bar in Kinsale eventually won one of the few Cork darts titles to elude him when he captured Division (1) of the Beamish Golden Arrows Singles Championships at Ardmanning House.

Almost one hundred players competed in the Championships which are organised by the Cork Darts Players’ Association and generously sponsored by Beamish Irish Stout.

John Delaney (Ardmanning), Tony O’Donovan, Alan Bevan, Joe Collins and Cyril Keane (Beamish Irish Stout)

The players were divided into three divisions and Joe Collins won his section with a 4-2 win over his team-mate, Craig McCarthy, in the final. The beaten semi-finalists were John Donnellan and Noel O’Neill while John Kidney hit the highest check-out of 164.

Tony O’Donovan (Brown Derby) was the surprise winner of Division (2) when he defeated Liam O’Neill (Lion’s Den) 4-0 in the final. The beaten semi-finalists here were Terry Hayes and Tony Manning with Hayes hitting the highest check-out of 142.

Alan Bevan (Viaduct Inn) defeated Jack Quinn (Rock) in the 3^rd. Division with Vincent Hegarty and Dave Kelleher losing out in the semis.

Cyril Keane (Area Manager Beamish Irish Stout) presented the prizes on the night.

Eddie Cull, Nicola O’Donovan and Damian O’Hea won their matches for the Republic of Ireland in their magnificent 16-13 victory over Northern Ireland in their annual Friendly International in Mohill, County Leitrim.

Eddie beat Ricky Dunlop, Nicola Defeated Norma Irvine and Damien had a win over Sean McKinney.

The Cork City Challenge Cup was won by the Goblet Bar who defeated the Arches Bar in the final while the Shandon Plate competition was won by the Harp (1) with victory over Rock (2).

The Cork ‘A’ youths’ team, captained by the ‘Rocket’ Ryan Courtney, won the Irish Inter-Counties Youths’ Championship for the second time when they defeated Roscommon ‘A’ by three games to nil in the final at the West County Hotel in Ennis.

Seventeen teams competed in the Championship and they were divided into four groups and played off on a ‘round robin’ basis with two teams qualifying from each group.

The Cork ‘A’ team were drawn in Group (B) and won their first two matches against Donegal (3-2) and Westmeath (4-1) before losing 2-3 to Kildare ‘A’ in their final match. But they had done enough and qualified for the quarter-finals in second place.

Cork ‘B’ qualified from Group ‘A’ after losing 2-3 to both Mayo ‘B’ and Roscommon ‘A’ and two excellent wins against Kilkenny ‘B’ (4-1) and Kildare ‘B’ (5-0).

Cork ‘B’ were unlucky to lose 2-3 to the title-holders Clare in the quarter-finals but there was no stopping the ‘A’ as they defeated Mayo ‘A’ (3-1), Clare (3-1) and Roscommon ‘A’ (3-0) to bring the title back to Cork for the first time since 2001.

In CDPA competitions the Millwheel won the Dart Couriers Division (1) 5-a-side League with a victory over the Horse Shoe in the final and Brown Derby (1) defeated the Lion’s Den for the 2^nd. Division title.

The Jerry Quinn Memorial Trophy was won by the Rock Bar who defeated Forde’s in the final at the Harp Lounge Bar and Fionn Kearney (Waxy’s) won the Division (3) Singles at Ardmanning House when he defeated James O’Connor (Ma Dullea’s) in the final.

John Hadlow (Capwell) was in top form during March winning the Division (1) Singles at the Rock Bar and teaming up with Tony McGregor to win the Division (2) Doubles in the Capwell.