First Victory for Spearing

The 2012 Ireland Players’ Championship got underway with 135 players competing in Round One on Sunday, October 23rd., at the Abbey Court Hotel in Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

Glenn Spearing and Damien O’Driscoll

 

The Men’s competition was won by Glenn Spearing from Dublin who defeated the reigning champion, Damien O’Driscoll {Cork}, by six legs to two in the final.

In the semi-finals Spearing defeated Stephen Byrne {Wexford} 6 – 2 while O’Driscoll had a similar victory over Northern Ireland International, Darren Clifford {Down}.

Sharon O’Brien and Kay O’Carroll

The 2011 Ladies’ Champion, Sharon O’Brien {Kildare}, defeated Cork’s Kay O’Carroll 4 – 3 in the final of the Ladies’ competition. In the semi-finals O’Brien defeated Linda Harte {Kilkenny}and O’Carroll eliminated Maeve O’Connor {Carlow}, both on 3 – 0 scorelines.

Keith Silles and John Seagrave

The 2011 Youths’ Champion, John Seagrave {Dublin}, was also in sparkling form in Round One as he captured maximum points with a 3 – 0 victory over Keith Silles {Kerry} in the final.

The beaten semi-finalists were Andrew Ryan and Conor Lowry.

 Click here for Round One results.

Record Crowds at the Killarney Darts Festival.

The 2011 Killarney Darts Festival attracted record entries and crowds to the Killarney Convention Centre at the Gleneagle Hotel over the weekend of October 14^th. to 16^th.

The Festival got underway on the Friday night with 156 players battling it out for the 32 qualifying places in the John McEvoy Gold Dart Pro Tour event on the Sunday.

 

A record entry of 345 players competed in the Ladbrokes.com Irish Masters on the Saturday and the Irish players showed that they were more than a match for the many PDPA players on the day.

 

In the early rounds Kieran Kehoe {Wexford} put out Peter Manley before losing to Mark Webster and William O’Connor {Limerick} despatched Michael van Gerwen and then lost in his boards final to Aodhagan O’Neill {Cavan}.   O’Neill then was beaten by Dennis Smith in the last sixteen.

Kevin McDonnell – Best Irish Player with Robbie Kelly

 

 

Cork players, Peter Quinn, Darrell Hodgson and Kevin McDonnell, were making headlines all around the hall with Quinn knocking out Simon Whitlock, Hodgson eliminating Jelle Klaasen and McDonnell picked up the award for the best Irish player in the Masters with some exciting wins.

Paul Nicholson, Aisling Fennin {Ladbrokes} and Mark Walsh.

 

Mark Walsh won the Irish Masters for the second time when he defeated Paul Nicholson 6 – 4 in the final.

 

Results here http://www.pdc.tv/page/NewsdeskDetail/0,,10180~2483509,00.html

 

A round of the PDC Unicorn Youth Tour was added to the Killarney Festival this year and this attracted a large entry of the best youth players from Ireland and the UK.

Michael van Gerwen defeated Joe Cullen 4 – 2 in the final and the best Irish players were Ryan Maher {Dublin}, David Coyne {Kilkenny} and Jamie Grant {Waterford}, who all reached the last sixteen.

 

John McEvoy presenting the Gold Dart Trophy to Justin Pipe

 

The shocks continued on Sunday in the Pro Tour event with Irish players eliminating many of the fancied pros.

 

Pat Molyneux {Limerick} defeated Colin Osborne 6 – 2 before losing to Steve Beaton.

Darren Clifford knocked out number two seed, Wes Newton, and Aodhagan O’Neill while Wexford’s Kieran Kehoe topped a great weekend with wins over Irish Matchplay Champion, Connie Finnan, and Nigel Heydon before bowing out the Justin Pipe who went on to win the Gold Dart Classic with a 6 – 5 victory over last year’s winner, Gary Anderson.

 

Pro Tour results here http://www.pdc.tv/page/NewsdeskDetail/0,,10180~2483785,00.html

 

Kay O’Carroll, Crissy Manley and Marie McEvoy {Sponsor}

 

Crissy Manley from Carlisle won the Silver Dart Ladies’ Singles with a 4 – 1 victory over Kay O’Carroll from Cork.

 

In the semi-finals Crissy defeated Martina Scallan 3 – 1 and Kay had a similar win over Rebecca Rose.

 

Results:

 

Q/finals:
Ann Marie Flood 2 - 3 Martina Scallan
Ann Marie Fleming 0 - 3 Crissy Manley
Kay O'Carroll 3 - 1 Breda Doyle
Liz Baxter 0 - 3 Rebecca Rose

S/finals:
Martina Scallan 1 - 3 Crissy Manley
Kay O'Carroll 3 - 1 Rebecca Rose

Final:
Crissy Manley 4 - 1 Kay O'Carroll

 

Damien Kelly, Ryan Maher and David McEvoy {Sponsor}

 

Ryan Maher from Dublin retained the John McEvoy Bronze Dart Youths’ Singles at the 2011 Killarney Darts Festival when he defeated Damien Kelly {Limerick} 3 – 1 in the final.

 

In the semi-finals Ryan defeated his Dublin team-mate 3 – 0 while Damien had a similar victory over Jack O’Hea from Cork.

 

A record entry of fifty players competed in the Youths’ Singles.

 

Results:

 

Q/finals:

Brian Roche 0 - 3 Ryan Maher
Darren Savage 0 - 3 John Seagrave
Damien Kelly 3 - 1 Dean Finn
Jack O'Hea 3 - 2 Murty Browne

S/finals:
Ryan Maher 3 - 0 John Seagrave
Damien Kelly 3 - 0 Jack O'Hea

Final:
Ryan Maher 3 - 1 Damien Kelly

 

FINNAN WINS TOM KIRBY MEMORIAL IRISH MATCHPLAY FINAL

CONNIE FINNAN won the 2011 Tom Kirby Memorial Irish Matchplay final against
Shane O'Connor with a 6-4 triumph on Sunday night.

Limerick's Finnan, 49, will now proceed to compete on darts' biggest stage in the
Ladbrokes World Darts Championship in December, where he will line up in the
preliminary round of that event.

Having won through the early stages of the Irish Matchplay event six weeks ago,
including a win over Cappamore's William O'Connor in the semis, he joined Tallaght's
Shane O'Connor on stage at the New Citywest Convention Centre for the final.

Finnan settled any early nerves with a 180 in the opening leg, which he took in 15
darts to break throw on double 16 before a double eight finish saw him move two
legs up.    O'Connor posted a 106 checkout to win the third, and shared the next two legs as Finnan moved into a 3-2 lead.

Finnan added a third maximum of the game and a 74 finish to win the sixth, with
O'Connor producing a fine 12-darter to level with a 94 checkout.   He also hit a 180 in the next, but missed the bull for an 81 checkout to level as Finnan took out double 16 to move a leg away from glory.

O'Connor finished 85 to keep the match alive, but missed double ten for a 140 checkout in the tenth leg, and double 16 from Finnan ensured victory.

The tournament is named in memory of the late Tom Kirby, a former professional darts player from Ireland who passed away in 2008, with the trophy presented by his widow Ann Kirby at the Citywest Hotel on Sunday night.

Dolan Stars at City West

While Phil Taylor was winning his tenth World Grand Prix title at the City West Hotel in Dublin over the weekend Brendan Dolan from Fermanagh in Northern Ireland was the real ‘star of the show’ with some brilliant scoring and high finishing.

After powering his way into the semi-finals Dolan wrote his name into the darting history books when he recorded the first –ever televised 9-dart finish in a double start competition in his defeat of James Wade and even though he lost to Taylor in the final he still managed to hit a maximum finish of 170 and ten 180’s to Taylor’s four.

For the record Phil Taylor won the final by six sets to three.