Darts in Ireland

O'Connor is Number One

Shane O'Connor (right) won Round Seven of the 2008 Bruce Betting Ireland Players' Championship with a 6-3 victory over Jason Barry in the final at the Coolquay Lodge in Dublin.

The beaten semi-finalists were Aodhagan O'Neill and Roy Bailie.

O'Connor finishes the qualifying competitions as Number One on the Ireland Rankings List and he will now be the top seed in the Grand Finals of the Championship in Kilkenny next August.

The Top 32 players on the Rankings List will be invited to compete in the finals which will have a prize fund of

€ 8,000 plus an opportunity of winning a magnificent Peugeot 207 car for a 9-dart finish.

There was also a very entertaining youths' competition at the Coolquay Lodge with 32 players competing on the day.

The winner was David Concannon (pictured right) who defeated Paddy Meaney 3-2 in the final.

Click here for full results of Round 7

Youth Friendship Trophy

Best wishes to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland Under-21 teams that will be competing this

weekend {May 23-25} in the annual Youth Friendship Trophy at The Boundary in Alfreton, Derbyshire, England.

The Irish squads are as follows :-

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:

Female: Gemma Keogh, Tara French and Ciara O'Meara

Male: Jason Cullen, Gary Coyne, David Concannon, Sean Fleming, Stephen Nyhan, Paddy Meaney,

John McKenna, Mark Cullen, Shane Nolan, David Coyne, Willie O'Connor, Gary Concannon,

Mark Finneran, Gerald Murphy, Michael Meaney, Sean McArdle and Martin Heneghan.

NORTHERN IRELAND:

Female: Janice Wright, Mikaela Elder and Beverley Rainey

Male: Mark McCurdy, Ashley Rainey, Justin Bradley, Ryan Gault, Niall Logue, Sean Doone,

Sean Maguire, Stefan McCusker, Johnny McGovern, Lee Stewart, David McFall, Darren Dempster

and Ashley Dobson.

Shane O'Connor Wins Fintan Brennan Memorial

Shane O'Connor with members of the Brennan family

The Park Inn in Kilkenny City was the venue for three great darts events over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

The Fintan Breenan Memorial Singles was the centre-piece on Saturday and it attracted a high-class entry of top-class throwers to the Marble City

Shane O'Connor emerged victorious with a 5-3 victory over Paddy Meaney in an exciting final.

In the semi-finals Paddy had defeated Benny Grace 4-2 while Shane eliminated James Brogan 4-0. On the Friday night at the Park Inn the locals were treated to a magnificent exhibition by 'The Artist' Kevin Painter while on Sunday another professional Terry Jenkins was on hand to make the presentations after the final of the Kilkenny City Darts League.

Brennan's won the League with a hard-fought victory over the Park Inn.

Beamish 'Golden Arrows' in Cork

The Cork Darts Players' Association organised the annual Beamish 'Golden Arrows' Singles Championship at Ardmanning House in Togher and as usual it was very well supported with more than one hundred players competing on the night for a prize fund of € 1,300.

Golden Arrows Champions - Anthony Boyle, Pakie O'Donovan and Noel Hegarty

Grade (1) was won by Pakie O'Donovan (Millwheel Bar) who defeated John Kidney (Huntsman Bar) in a closely-fought final while in Grade (2) Anthony Boyle from the Harp Bar emerged victorious with a win over Des McKinney (Ferry Arms)

Noel Hegarty defeated his Harp Bar team-mate Hugh Elliott in the final of Grade (3).

It was a great week for the Harp Bar as they captured the Cork City Challenge Cup with a surprise victory over the favourites, Millwheel Bar.

Damian O'Driscoll Wins in Bettystown

Joe Coyne congratulating Damian O'Driscoll)

Damian O'Driscoll from Cork won Round Six of the 2008 Bruce Betting Ireland Players' Championship at the Bettystown Court Hotel in County Meath with an emphatic 6-1 victory over Daryl Gurney (Antrim) in the final.

Almost one hundred and thirty players competed on the day and some excellent performances were witnessed throughout the afternoon.

Shane O'Connor was close to hitting a 9-dart check-out in his board final against O'Driscoll. He scored 477 with his first eight darts but then clipped the wire on double twelve. O'Driscoll was on top of his form, however, and went on to win the board before eliminating Mervyn Robinson and Simon Wykes to reach the final.

Gurney was equally as good in the other half of the draw with impressive victories over Connie Finnan, Michael Blair and Keith Rooney on his road to the decider.

Damian O'Driscoll was unstoppable in the final and he wrapped up his second victory in this year's Championship with an 11-dart game in the final leg.

Paddy Meaney from Kilkenny won the youths' competition once again when he defeated Ryan Courtney (Cork) 3-2 in the final.

Click here for full results.

Jacko Wins Dunn Memorial

Jason 'Jacko' Barry (right) won the Tommy Dunn Memorial Singles on the second day of the darts weekend at the Bettystown Court Hotel in County Meath. He defeated Andy Martin 6-1 in the final. Vera Ronan won the Ladies' Singles and Ryan Courtney won the Youths' Singles.

Semi-final Place for McGowan in Scotland

Mick McGowan returned to top form in Glasgow on Saturday where he reached the semi-finals of the PDC Scottish Players' Championship. On the day he defeated Colin Osborne, Roland Scholten and Chris Mason before losing to the eventual wnner Mervyn King in the semis.

Two other Irish players, John Magowan and Jason Barry, also had good tournaments in Glasgow with John defeating Alan Warriner and Peter Manley and Jason eliminating Terry Jenkins and Colin Monk before they both lost out in the last sixteen.

Donegal Double for McIntire's

(Photo right - McIntire's team]

In the Southwest Donegal League McIntire's Bar from Dunkineely recorded a memorable Cup and League Double. They defeated Fawlty's Bar in the League final by five games to two after previously defeating the Bridge Bar 4-1 in the Cup final.

John Joe's Bar defeated O'Donnell's Bar 5-2 in the final of the 'B' Cup. John McGinley from Biddy's Bar was voted Player of the Year at their Presentation Night.

Six Different Winners in Wexford

The 6th. Annual David Kehoe Memorial Tournament in Davidstown, Co. Wexford, produced it's sixth different winner for the sixth successive year. John Cullen from Ballyturn defeated Dominic Fenlon from Davidstown in the final. The beaten semi-finalists were Ian Austin and Martin Murphy.

There was a repeat of last year's final in the Ladies' Singles with Maureen Kelly winning the title for the third time with a win over Mena Lawlor.

Chris French and Ann Redmond were the beaten semi-finalists.

2008 Bruce Betting Ireland Players' Championship

(Photo - Shane O'Connor - Ranked No.1 on the Rankings List)

After Round Seven of the Championship the Top 32 players on the Rankings List will be invited to compete in the Grand Finals next August.

It is interesting to note that every one of the players on the Rankings List at the moment is still in with a chance of making it to the Top 32.

Cork and Kildare Capture Tramore Inter-Counties Titles

There was a record entry of 29 men's teams and 18 ladies' teams for the Tramore Inter-Counties Challenge competitions which were organised in conjunction with the annual Spring Festival at O'Shea's Hotel.

The Cork ladies' team won their event for the fourth time in great style by eliminating the title-holders, Kildare, and the current Irish Inter-Counties Champions, Dublin, en route to the final.

The Men's Challenge was won by Kildare for the first time and they also showed great determination as they defeated the title-holders Limerick in the semi-finals and came from behind in the final to defeate the current Irish Champions Kilkenny.

Cork Ladies' Team - Winners of Tramore Inter-Counties Challenge with Team Manager Noel McCarthy

	Well done to Cliff O'Brien from Meath who hit a maximum 170 check-out on the day. (Photo - Cliff O'Brien (right) - 170 Check-out) Kildare's Martin Murphy (left) is unstoppable at the moment and he won the Men's Singles with a decisive victory over Jimmy Leahy (Dublin) in the final. The beaten semi-finalists were Johnny Donovan and John O'Shea, both from Cork.

	Paddy Meaney (right) from Kilkenny was one of the stars at the Festival winning both the Under-21 and Under-18 Singles titles. He defeated his team-mate David Coyne in the Under-21 final on Saturday and completed the double with a win over Ryan Courtney (Cork) in the Under-18 decider on Sunday. It was an all-Cork final in the Ladies' Singles with Kay O'Carroll (left) taking the honours over Nicola O'Donovan. Two Carlow players, Maeve O'Connor and Maureen Kelly, were the losing semi-finalists.
*Click* here for full results	See Presentation Photo Album here

Great Weekend for Brendan Dolan

Brendan Dolan from Fermanagh produced some of the best darts of his career at the PDC tournaments in Telford over the weekend.

On Saturday he defeated James Wade and Dave Askew to reach the 4th. Round of the Players' Championship but he really struck gold on Sunday when he defeated Vincent van der Voort, Roland Sholten, Wes Newton, Colin Lloyd and Colin Osbourne en route to the final of the UK Open Regional competition where he lost out to an in-form

Phil Taylor.

For his hard work Brendan picked up a cheque for £ 3,000 Sterling and he is also guaranteed his place as one of the seeded players in the UK Open Finals in June.

O'Neill Takes Cavan Singles Title

Aodhagan O'Neill (Cavan) won the INDO-Ranked Cavan Singles title in Bailieboro on Sunday when he defeated Martin McCloskey (Donegal) in the final.

Angela Deward (Donegal) won the Ladies' Singles at the same event.