O'Shea's Hotel in Tramore, County Waterford, will be the venue once again for the annual Tramore Spring Festival on the weekend of April 3rd/ 4th/ 5th.

The Festival will commence on Friday night with an Open Draw Doubles competition at 8.00pm and it will continue on Saturday at 12 noon with the Men's and Ladies' Inter-Counties Challenge competitions.

Kildare won the Men's title for the first time last year while the Cork ladies won their event for the fourth time.

Team secretaries are reminded that the closing date for receipt of entries is Wednesday, March 18th.    Also on Day Two of the Festival there will be an Under-21 Singles starting at 4.00pm.

The Men's Singles on the Sunday has been re-named the Damian Connolly Memorial Singles in memory of the young Kildare darts player who died tragically at Christmas 2007.

There will be separate Ladies' and Youths' Under-18 Singles competitions on the Sunday.

Limerick Duo Dominate in Clonmel

William O'Connor won Round Four of the 2009 Ireland Players' Championship at the Clonmel Park Hotel

in Tipperary when he defeated his Limerick team-mate, Radaslaw Szaganski, 6-4 in the final.

In the semi-finals they defeated two Cork players, Damian O'Driscoll and Peter Quinn, respectively.

112 players competed in the Men's event and with many of the top-ranked players not present on the day some of the players down the Rankings List availed of the opportunity to gain ground on the absentees.

O'Connor's win catapulted him into joint fourth place which he shares with Kildare's Martin Murphy who reached the quarter-finals on Sunday.

Another beaten quarter-finalist Brian Cathcart also moved up the table with O'Driscoll into joint eight place while Szaganski made the biggest leap from the bottom of the pack up to 14th. position.

The country's top two ladies, Sharon O'Brien and Denise Cassidy, clashed in the final of their event with O'Brien winning through on a 4-2 scoreline.

The winner has now moved out in front on the Rankings List ahead of two Galway players, Caroline Breenand Mary Rowley, while the runner-up has shot up the table to joint fifth position.

Photo left - Ryan Courtney and Paddy Meaney

In the Youths' Championship Paddy Meaney defeated Ryan Courtney 3-0 in the final and after wins in three rounds he is now 14 points clear of his nearest rival Dean Forde on the Rankings List.

Courtney moved up to sixth place after his performance on Sunday

Best Wishes to Sean Marshall

The Irish darting fraternity extends best wishes to Sean Marshall from Kerry who missed out on the Clonmel

competition as he has been receiving treatment at the Cork University Hospital.

We hope to see Sean back on the oche soon and keeping his place on top of the Ireland Rankings List

Poor Showing by Irish Teams in Nations Cup

England - Nations Cup Winners 2009

The 2009 Six Nations Cup was staged  in Northern Ireland last weekend and once again the Irish

performances were less than impressive.

The two Irish teams were drawn in Group A and after the Republic of Ireland lost their first match 8-13

to Wales they went down again 6-13 to Northern Ireland.

In the final match of the group Wales defeated the North on a 13-7 scoreline.

Group B was much closer with Scotland just failing to advance after winning 13-12 against the Netherlands

and losing 7-13 to England.

The Netherlands beat England 13-12 in their group match but England got revenge in the final with a 13-8 victory.

The Republic of Ireland won the Wooden Spoon when they lost 5-13 to Scotland in the 5th/ 6th. Place play-off.

Results:

Group A:  Wales 13  Rep. Ireland 8
               Rep. Ireland 6  Northern Ireland 13
               Northern Ireland 7  Wales 13

Group B:  England 13  Scotland 7
               Scotland 13  Netherlands 12
               England 12  Netherlands 13

Semi-Finals:

Wales 8  Netherlands 13
England 13  Northern Ireland 5

5th Place match:

Scotland 13  Rep. Ireland 5

Final:

Netherlands 8  England 13
 

Pie Man Wins in Kells

Photo - Andy Smith with Joe Coyne

PDC professional, Andy "The Pie Man" Smith won the annual Sky Bet "Sets and Legs" Tournament

at Shirley's Pub, Kells, Co. Kilkenny, 

Local player, Benny Grace, had a great tournament eliminating Adrian Gray in the quarter-finals before

losing to Smith in the semis.
 

Shane O'Connor from Dublin was also in top form as he defeated Colin Osborne by 3 sets to 1 in the

semi-finals before losing to Andy Smith 2-3 in a thriller of a final.
 

The winner received a cheque for € 1,000 for his day's work while O'Connor picked up € 500.

The beaten semi-finalists received € 250 apiece and Jacko Barry from Dublin hit a maximum 170 check-out

during the competition.