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NEWS -
JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2008
News from Around the Country
No Joy for Irish Teams in Nations Cup
The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland teams failed to win a match
on Day One of the Nations Cup
in Wales over the weekend and both of them finished at the bottom of
their respective groups.
The Republic lost 11-13 to both Scotland and Wales in Group {1} while
the North were beaten 8-13 by
England and 11-13 by the Netherlands.
Northen Ireland took the "Wooden Spoon" when they lost 10-13 to the
Republic of Ireland in the battle
for 5th. and 6th. places.
The Nations Cup was won by Wales who defeated England 13-8 in the final.
Youth Players Well Catered For
Over the next few weeks there will be a variety of events for youth
players at different venues throughout
the country.
Starting in Kildare on Saturday, March 1st., Round Five of the 2008
Ireland Youths' Championship will
be staged at Sarsfields' GAA Complex in Newbridge while on the following
weekend the Springhill Court
Hotel in Kilkenny will be the venue for two big events.
On
Saturday, March 8th., the INDO Youths' Inter-Counties Championships take
place while on the Sunday
at the same venue the Kilkenny Darts Association are organising a
Youths' Under-18 Singles competition
with € 500 in prize money on offer.
A
youths' competition has been added to the George Byrne Memorial Open
Tournament which takes place in
the Good Counsel GAA Club, Drimnagh, Dublin, on March 22nd., and after
that attention will switch to the
Tramore Spring Festival in O'Shea's Hotel on the first weekend in April.
 John
McKenna Jnr. who will be defending his Under-21 title in Tramore is
pictured on the right
On Saturday, April 5th., the Tramore Under-21 Singles will be organised
while on the following day there will be an Under-18 Singles at the same
venue.
Players' Championship in Kildare
Round Five of the 2008 Bruce Betting Ireland Players' Championship will
take place at Sarsfield's GAA Complex, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, on
Saturday next, March 1st., and players are reminded that the closing
date for entries is Wednesday, February 27th.
Also on the day there will be further rounds of the Ireland Ladies' and
Youths' Championships and entries for
these events will be accepted at the venue on the day.
Denise
Cassidy - Ranked Number One is pictured right
This will be the final opportunity for the ladies to qualify for the
Grand Finals of the Championships in August.
The Top 8 players on the Ladies' Rankings List after Saturday's
competition will go through to the finals.
Denise Cassidy is currently ranked at Number One on 28 points just two
points ahead of Sharon O'Brien.
 Joan
Flynn and Kay O'Carroll are their closest rivals in third and fourth
places, respectively.
Youths' Number One - Paddy Meaney
(left)
Paddy Meaney tops the Youths' Rankings just two points ahead of Sean
McArdle going into the Round Five of the Youths' Championship.
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 Shane
O'Connor Wins Shirley's 'Sets and Legs' Tournament
81 players entered the annual 'Sets
and Legs' Tournament in Shirley's Bar, Kells, Co. Kilkenny, and
Shane O'Connor took the first prize of € 1,500 when he defeated
John Elder by three sets to two in a
magnificent final on Sunday,
February 17th.
In
the semi-finals O'Connor defeated Martin Murphy 3-0 while Elder
accounted for Sean Marshall 3-1.
In a pre-tournament doubles
competition on Saturday night Shirley's Bar landlord, Shane
Johnston, teamed up with Andy Martin to defeat Ronnie Delaney
and Tess Harte in the final.
Results 'Sets and Legs'
Tournament
John Elder 2 -
3 Shane O'Connor
Winner received €
1,500
Sean
Marshall 1 - 3 John Elder
Martin Murphy 0 - 3 Shane O'Connor
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Gary
Tipping 2 - 3 Sean Marshall
Chris
Connery 3 - 1 Harry Anderson
John
Elder 3 - 2 Denis McCarthy
Peter
Quinn 3 - 2 Andrew Dempsey
John
Ward 2 - 3 Martin Murphy
Anto
McCracken 3 - 1 David Bradley
Patrick Keane 3 - 2 Benny Grace
Shane
O'Connor 3 - 2 Mike O'Sullivan
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Sean Marshall 3 - 2 Chris
Connery
John Elder 3 - 0 Peter Quinn
Martin Murphy 3 - 0 Anto
McCracken
Patrick Keane 0 - 3 Shane
O'Connor
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Northern Ireland and the Republic
of Ireland will be competing in the annual Nations Cup
Tournament which takes place next weekend, February 23rd./
24th., at the Rhydyar Leisure Centre, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
The Irish squads are as follows :-
Northern Ireland:
Roy Bailie, Ricky
Dunlop, Gary Elliott, Davy Glenn, Daryl Gurney and Roy
Montgomery.
Republic of Ireland:
Eddie Cull, Jason
Cullen, Andrew Dempsey, Connie Finnan, Steve McDonnell and
The other countries competing are
England, Netherlands, Scotland and Wales.
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News:
  Dublin
and Kilkenny Win in Castlebar
Dublin ladies retained their Irish
Inter-Counties title in Castlebar over the weekend when they
defeated Carlow 4-1 in the final at the Breaffy House Hotel.
Dublin had defeated Mayo 4-3 in the
quarter-finals and Galway 4-1 in the semis to set-up the decider
against Carlow who had two hard-fought 4-3 victories over Cork and
Donegal at the same stage.
In the Men's Championship Donegal's long six-year reign as champions
came to an end in the quarter-finals when they lost 6-7 to Kildare.
In the other quarter-final matches
Dublin beat Cork 7-5, Kilkenny defeated Limerick 7-2 and Mayo
defeated Roscommon 7-6 in an-all Connaught 'derby'.
Kildare defeated Mayo 7-2 and Kilkenny defeated Dublin 7-4 to set-up
an all-Leinster final.
The 'Lily-Whites' raced into an early
4-0 lead in the final but the 'Cats' then went on the 'prowl' and
fought back strongly to take their first-ever Irish Inter-Counties
title with an exciting 7-5 victory over their Leinster rivals.
Round Four of Players'
Championship Goes to Cork
 Damien
O'Driscoll (pictured right) from Cork won Round Four of the 2008
Bruce Betting Ireland Players'Championship at the Two Mile Inn Hotel
in Limerick.
Damien defeated Benny Grace (Kilkenny)
6-2 in the final.
In the semi-finals O'Driscoll defeated
Chris Connery (Kilkenny) 6-2 while Grace defeated Shane O'Connor
(Kildare) 6-3.
Denise Cassidy (Fermanagh) defeated
Martina Scallon (Wexford) 4-0 in the Ladies' final and the beaten
semi-finalists were Kay O'Carroll (Cork) and Gemma Keogh (Kilkenny).
Paddy Meaney (Kilkenny) defeated Ryan
Courtney (Cork) 3-1 in the Youths' final.
Sky Bet to Sponsor Shirley's
Sets and Legs Tournament
The very popular " Sets and Legs "
Tournament will take place at Shirley's Bar, Kells, Co. Kilkenny,
on Sunday, February 17th., and the
organiser, Joe Coyne, reports that Sky Bet have become
involved this year thus raising the profile
of the event.
Intending participants are reminded that no
entries will be accepted at the venue and that Sunday next, February
3rd., will be the final date for receipt of entries.
The draw for the tournament will be made on that day at the Two Mile Inn
Hotel in Limerick.
Leinster Inter-Counties Report
Five-in-a- Row for Carlow Ladies
(Photo - Carlow
ladies' team with Joe Coyne and Tom Keogh)
The Leinster Inter-Counties Championships
were held at the Springhill Court Hotel in Kilkenny on Sunday,January
20th., and once again they attracted a capacity attendance to the Marble
City venue.
Carlow won the Ladies' title for the fifth
year in succession with an exciting 4-3 win against Kildare in the
final.
Kildare had some consolation as they
captured the Men's title with a 7-6 victory against Kilkenny in another
'cliff-hanger' of a match.
Kilkenny Youths won their fourth
consecutive title with a 3-0 win against Dublin.
McGinley Wins Con Sean Cup
( Photo - Conor McShane presenting the Con
Sean Cup to John Con McGinley.
On the right is James Byrne,
organiser)
Up in Donegal John Con McGinley won
the Con Sean Memorial Cup when he defeated Declan Cunningham 5-4 in the
final at the Bridge Bar in Carrick.
The beaten semi-finalists were Raymond
Hegerty and Andrew Gillespie while
Francis McShane hit the highest check-out of 160 on the day.
The event was organised by James Byrne and
the total proceeds of the day will be donated to the Killybegs Hospice.
Full results on
www.donegaldarts.com
HERE
************************************
McGowan Performs Well in
Gateshead
Ireland's Mick McGowan was in top
form in the North East Regional Final of the UK Open where he
lost to Wes Newton in Round Five. Owen Caffrey also
had a good tournament in reaching the 4th. Round and Jason Barry
was also in the prize money after
losing out in the 3rd. Round.
The event was won by Colin Osborne
who defeated Denis Ovens 8-6 in the final.
************************************
 Double
for Denise in Tramore
Denise Cassidy (pictured right)
from Fermanagh recorded a double victory in the Ladies' Singles
competition at O'Shea's Hotel, Tramore, Co. Waterford.
On Sunday, January 13th., she defeated
Ronnie Johnson from Peterborough in the final of the Sharon
RafterMemorial Singles at the Tramore Winter Gala to add to her victory
in the Ireland Ladies' Championship the previous day.
The beaten
semi-finalists were Martina Scallon (Wexford) and Sharon O'Brien
(Kildare)
Ger Fox (Wexford) (right) won the O'Shea Cup with a 5-2 victory
over Kilkenny's Brian Doheny in the final of the Men's Singles
The beaten semi-finalists here were Martin
Murphy and Paul Irving, both from Kildare.
David Coyne (pictured below) from
Kilkenny won the Tramore Youths' Cup for the first time when he defeated
Sean McArdle from Dublin in the final and the beaten semi-finalists were
Paddy Meaney (Kilkenny) and Dean Forde (Cork).
Men's and Ladies' Doubles competitions were held on the opening night of
the Winter Gala.
 Two
youth players, Ryan Courtney and Sean McArdle, almost caused a
sentational shock result as they battled their way into the final and
went 3-0 up against Shane O'Connor and Anto Caldwell from Dublin
Unfortunately, the youngsters could not " kill off " their more
experienced opponents and went down by four legs to three.
Sharon O'Brien and Susan McKenna from
Kildare defeated Sharon Buckley and Aisling Feiriteur from Cork in the
final of the Ladies' Doubles.
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************************************
Another Successful Players' Championship in Tramore
 (Photo - Sean McArdle)
Almost two hundred players competed in Round Three of the 2008
Bruce Betting Ireland Players' Championship at O'Shea's
Hotel, Tramore, Co. Waterford, and once again some excellent
performances were witnessed in all three competitions.
In the Youths' Championship Sean McArdle
(right) avenged his defeat by
Paddy Meaney in the final of the previous round in
Abbeyleix when he put on a superb show to defeat his opponent by
three legs to nil.
The beaten semi-finalists were Ryan Courtney and
Stephen Nyhan.
There was another top-class performance in the Ladies'
Championship with Denise Cassidy (seen pictured above) defeating Maureen Kelly 4-2.
Sharon O'Brien and Nicola Donovan lost out in the
semi-finalists.
 The men's competition was another great event with 139 players
competing on the day.
Patrick Keane, (pictured right) who topped the Rankings at the end of the 2007
Championship, got back into top gear again and took the
first prize of € 1,200 with a hard-fought 6-5 victory over Shane
O'Connor in the final.
O'Connor had defeated Damien O'Driscoll and Keane had accounted
for Martin Murphy in the semi-finals.
Round Four of the Championship will take place on Sunday,
February 3rd., at the Two Mile Inn Hotel, Ennis Road, Limerick,
and players are reminded that the closing date is Wednesday,
January 30th.
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Plenty of
Action for Irish Players
Irish darts players will
taste their first piece of action in
2008 this coming weekend with the North
East
Qualifying Round of the
UK Open in Gateshead and the Tramore
Winter Gala and Ireland Players'
Championship in O'Shea's
Hotel.
(Photo- Mick McGowan (right)- who
will be competing in Gateshead).
The Irish PDPA members
will be competing in the Gateshead
Stadium on Sunday next, January 13th.,
hoping to secure enough
points to qualify for the Grand
Finals of the UK Open
next June.
************************************
On the home front
the focus will be on the 2008 Ireland
Players' Championship in Tramore on
Saturday. Sean Marshall and Shane
O'Connor are the joint leaders on the
Men's Rankings List after Round Two and
they are closely followed by Johnny
Donovan just two points adrift.
Entries for the men's
competition close on Wednesday, January
9th.
In the Youths'
Championship Paddy Meaney and Sean
McArdle are level on 18 points on top of
the Rankings and they are two points
ahead of Jason Hahessy and David
Concannon in joint third spot.
(Photo
- Sharon O'Brien - on top of the Ladies'
Rankings)
A Ladies' Championship
was added to the programme at the last
round in Abbeyleix and this was an
outstanding success with most of the top
female players from around the country
in attendance.
Entries for the Ladies' and Youths'
competitions will be accepted at the
venue at 12.30pm on Saturday.
The Tramore Winter Gala
will commence on Friday night with Men's
and Ladies' Doubles competitions and it
will conclude on Sunday with separate
Singles competitions for Men, Ladies and
Youths.
Damien
Connolly R.I.P
The untimely death over
Christmas of young Damien Connolly from
Kildare has shocked the Irish darts fraternity
Damien was a very popular
character at competitions throughout
Ireland and was always full of live. He was always in
attendance at the Tramore Festivals with
his family and friends and he will be
sadly missed at these events.
He competed in the last
round of the Ireland Players'
Championship in Abbeyleix and he was
looking
forward to competing in
the next round in Tramore.
May he rest in peace.
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