All
Eyes on Tramore
{Photo - The Action-packed
O'Shea's Hotel}
The
annual Tramore Spring Festival will be held at O'Shea's Hotel on
the weekend of
April 4th/ 5th/ 6th. with a varied
programme of events on the agenda.
The Festival kicks off on Friday
night with an 'Open Draw' Doubles competition at 8.00pm
and it continues on Saturday with
the Men's and Ladies' Inter-Counties Challenge competitions.
Last year Limerick were deserving winners of the Men's Challenge
with a 4-2 victory over Dublin in the final and these two teams
should be likely contenders again this year.
Irish Inter-Counties Champions Kilkenny will fancy their chances
of completing a double while Kildare and Cork could take the
title.
The
Ladies' Challenge will also be difficult to predict as most of
the counties entered can call on
at least five good players to fulfil
their teams.
{Photo
- Kildare Ladies - Winners 2007}
Kildare won the title last year when
they defeated Kilkenny in the final and they will be strong
contenders again. Irish Inter-Counties Champions Dublin are
overdue a win in this competition while former winners Cork and
Carlow will not be far away.
Team managers please note that 11.00am is check-in time and that
first round matches will be called at 12 noon sharp.
Also on Saturday the Tramore Under-21 Open Singles will take
place at 4.00pm and entries for this event will be accepted at
the venue at 3.00pm.
Sunday is Singles day with separate
competitions for Men, Ladies and Under-18 Youths.
All intending participants are
reminded that no entries will be accepted on
the day for the men's and ladies' competitions. Entries will be
accepted up to 6.00pm on the Saturday.
Gray Wins George Byrne
Open {Photo right - Garrett Gray}
Dublin's Garrett Gray won the George Byrne Memorial Open Singles
at the Good Counsel GAA Club in Drimnagh with a 6-2 victory over
his county team-mate Jimmy Murray in the final.
128 players competed on the day and
the beaten semi-finalists were Daryl Gurney {Antrim} and Connie
Finnan {Limerick}
Ger
Fox Retains Paddy Kiely Memorial
{Photo - Ger Fox -
right}
The
annual Paddy Kiely Memorial Singles Tournament was held
on Easter Saturday at the Fox's Den in Kilmacow, Co. Waterford,
and Ger Fox from Wexford retained the title with a 3-1 win
against Kilkenny's Mick 'Flash' Dwyer in the final.
Luke Nolan and Martin Barry were the beaten semi-finalists and
Martina Scallon won the
Elliott is Northern
Ireland Master
Gary Elliott was crowned Northern Ireland Masters Champion when
he defeated Shane Pearson in the final. The beaten
semi-finalists were Daryl Gurney and Glen Rodney.
Marie McCarthy defeated Grace Crane
in the Ladies' final while Mark McCurdy won the Youths'
event with a win over Richard
Hasson.
"Have Darts - Will
Travel"
Irish
Players Hit Headlines Abroad.
Two Northern Ireland players were in
the news recently with some excellent performances
on foreign soil. {Photo
Right - Roy Bailie}
On the Costa Del Sol in Spain Roy
Bailie continued his run of good form in reaching the
semi-finals of the Torremolinos Open
where he narrowly lost 2-3 to the eventual winner
Dylan Duo from Gibraltar.
At
the North West Regional Final of the UK Open over in Wigan John
Magowan was the best of the I
rish
players with some top-class triumphs.
He
defeated Dennis Ovens and Adrian Gray before losing to Colin
Lloyd in the fifth round.
The competition was won by Phil
Taylor who defeated Adrian Lewis 8-7 in a thriller.
Magowan is now the leading Irish player on the UK Open Order of
Merit and
{Photo - John Magowan is
pictured right}
he will once again be a strong
contender in the televised finals in June.
At Ardmanning House on Monday, March
10th., the Horse Shoe Inn had a long-overdue win in Division {1} when they defeatyed the
favourites, Millwheel Bar, 3-2 in a nail-biting final. Mick Walsh was the hero on the night
winning the last game against Craig McCarthy.
The annual Leo Molloy Memorial
Tournament was staged in Kilcar Village, Donegal, on Saturday, March 8th., and Brendan Dolan from
Fermanagh won the first prize of € 500 when he defeated John McGinley from Donegal in the final.
Full results on
www.donegaldarts.com
.
The finals of the Roscommon County
League were in Hannon's Hotel, Roscommon Town, on Sunday,March 2nd., and victory went to Spell's
Bar from Ballaghadereen who defeated McDermott's Bar from Ballinaheglish by four games to three.
The Shield final was won by Creaton's
Bar {Loughlin} with a 4-3 win over Murray's {Knockcroghery} The prize for the highest check-out went
to Gary Concannon with a finish from 160.
Roscommon won the INDO Youths'
Inter-Counties title for the third time when they defeated the host county Kilkenny by three games to
nil in the final at the Springhill Court Hotel on Saturday. 22 teams competed on the day and they
were divided into four groups with two teams advancing from each group for the quarter-finals.
