Darts in Ireland

NEWS - MAY 2011

Closing Date for Players’ Championship

The Grand Finals of the 2011 Ireland Players’ Championships will be held at the Springhill Court Hotel in Kilkenny on Sunday, June 26^th., and invitations have been sent to the players that have qualified for the four events which will be completed on the day.

Acceptance forms MUST be returned with the entry fees not later than JUNE 8^th., otherwise it will be assumed that the players will not be attending and their places will be granted to the next-ranked players on the Rankings List.

DON’T DELAY - - - YOU MIGHT FORGET !

Forms and Fees must be sent to Michael O’Sullivan, 29 Mervue Crescent, Ballyvolane, Cork, not later than June 8^th.

Irish Players in UK Open

Brendan Dolan is the top-ranked Irish player in the UK Open Eight Irish players have qualified to compete in the finals of the PDC UK Open which will take place at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton on the weekend of June 2^nd. to 5^th. The list of Irish players is as follows :-

Brendan Dolan - William O'Connor - John Magowan - Shane O'Connor - Mickey Mansell
John O'Shea - Mick McGowan - Aodhagan O'Neill - Best of luck to all of them.

Final Round of Players’ Championship

Denis McCarthy, Sharon O’Brien and Ryan Maher won their respective events at Round Six at the Clonmel Park Hotel in Tipperary on May 8^th.

John O’Shea and Denis McCarthy

In the Men’s competition Denis McCarthy defeated the reigning champion, John O’Shea, 6 – 1 in the final after defeating Peter Quinn 6 – 2 in the semi-finals. John O’Shea defeated David Coyne 6 – 2 in the other semi.

Sharon Buckley and Sharon O’Brien

Sharon O’Brien had a 4 – 1 victory over Sharon Buckley in the Ladies’ decider and she now

goes into the Grand Finals as the top seed. The beaten semi-finalists were Maeve O’Connor and Lynn Morritt.

Dean Forde and Ryan Maher

Ryan Maher has gone through the Youths’ Championship undefeated and he is the hot favourite to retain his title. In Clonmel he defeated Ian Flannery 3 – 1 in the semi-finals and Dean Forde 3 – 0 in the final. The other beaten semi-finalist was Dean Hoare.

Click here for Round Six results.

Finals of Players’ Championship

The Grand Finals of the 2011 of the 2011 Ireland Players’ Championships will be held on Sunday, June 26^th., at the Springhill Court Hotel in Kilkenny.

The top 32 players on the Rankings List will compete in the finals of the Men’s Championship and the top 16 on the Ladies’ Rankings will battle it out for their title.

There will be two competitions for the youths on the day with the top 8 competing in the Youths’ Championship and the players ranked 9^th. to 16^th. playing in the Youths’ Plate.

Round Six of the Championships were held at the Clonmel Park Hotel in Tipperary on Sunday,

May 8^th., with the players fighting for places in the Grand Finals.

The Men’s competition was won by Denis McCarthy {Kilkenny} who defeated John O’Shea

{Cork} 6 – 1 in the final and Sharon O’Brien {Klidare} defeated Sharon O’Brien {Cork} 4 – 1 in

the final of the Ladies’ competition.

Ryan Maher {Dublin} had a 3 – 0 victory over Dean Forde {Cork} in the Youths’ final.

Kevin Hits 9-darter in Clonmel

Photo – Kevin Burness

Kevin Burness from County Down hit a 9-dart check-out at the Tipperary Open Singles which was held at the GAA Centre in Clonmel on Saturday, May 7^th.

The competition was won by David Coyne from Kilkenny.

Cope House Win Donegal Cup

James Byrne presenting the Player of the Year Trophy to Anthony Gallagher

The Cope House retained the SWDDL League Cup in Donegal following a 5-4 victory over Roartys in The Bridge Bar.

Roartys were favourites to lift the title as they were unbeaten all season and they started well taking the first two doubles with Anthony Gallagher/Kieran Carr and John Con/Michael Byrne defeating Philip/John D Gallagher and Rodney McBrearty/Irwin Muirhead. The third doubles went to Gerry McBrearty/Emmett Quigley of the Cope against James P Byrne/Kevin Squires.

Roartys went 3-1 up following a 3-1 win for John Con against Philip Gallagher, then The Cope

levelled the match at 3-3 with 3-1 wins for Rodney McBrearty against Antony Gallagher and Irwin Muirhead against Kieran Carr. Irwin had two 180’s in this match.

Michael Byrne put Roartys 4-3 up when he came from 2-0 down to beat John D Gallagher 3-2

and Emmett Quigley tied the match up at 4-4 with a 3-0 win over Joe Mockler.

In the deciding match it was Stephen Muirhead against James P Byrne, the game went to 2-2

and it was Stephen who held his nerve to finish double four to take the cup back to Killybegs.

Results from South West Donegal Darts League:

Player of the Year: Anthony Gallagher (Roartys) (won 16/16 league games)

Highest checkout: 170 Dermot McGuire (Glenhead)

Most 180’s: 11 Andrew Gillespie (O’Donnell’s)

Least darts leg: 13 John McGinley (Roartys) and Andrew Gillespie (O’Donnell’s)

B Cup Final:

O’Donnell’s 5 – 1 Bridge Bar

League Semi Finals:

Roartys 5 – 3 Sliabh Liag ; Cope House 5 – 2 Big Francies.

O’Connor Wins George Byrne Open

Photo – William O’Connor with the Byrne family

Congratulations to William O’Connor on winning the Annual George Byrne Open Singles at the

Good Counsel GAA Club in Dublin. He defeated Mickey Mansell 6 – 1 in the final.

The beaten semi-finalists were Shane O’Connor and Connie Finnan and the Youths’ Singles was

won by Ryan Maher.

All-Ireland Championships

The annual All-Ireland Darts Championships will be held on the June Bank Holiday Weekend at the

Regency Hotel in Dublin.

Competitions will commence on the Friday night with the Pairs Championships and they will continue on Saturday with the Team and Singles events.

There will be separate events for Men, Ladies and Youths with the Championship Finals being held

on the Sunday.Full details are available from Joe Coyne {085-1596550}.