REPORTS
Great Support for Youths’
Darts in Cork
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| Ryan
Courtney and Damian O’Hea. |
The youths’ competitions at
the Cork County Masters Championships were very well supported at Ardmanning
House on Sunday, April 24th.
The under-17 competition was
won by Damian O’Hea who defeated his brother Darren in the final while Ryan
Courtney won the under-13 event with a win over Declan Harrington.
Emergence
of Youth in the North
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| Ricky Dunlop and Daryl
Gurney |
Two of the top youth players in
Northern Ireland over the past few years, Ricky Dunlop and Daryl Gurney, have
now emerged from under-age darts to become two of the leading players in the
senior ranks of the sport in the North.
Earlier in the year Ricky Dunlop won
the Northern Ireland Individual Championship when he defeated Stephen Rennie
in the final and recently the two youngsters contested the final of the
Northern Ireland Masters Championship with Gurney defeating Dunlop.
Jason Cullen Wins Fourth Title in
Tramore
Jason Cullen from Wexford won an
unprecedented fourth consecutive Youths’ title at the 2005 Tramore Spring
Festival in O’Shea’s Hotel.
Jason defeated Darren O’Hea from
Cork in the final. The beaten semi-finalists were Michael O’Boyle
(Sligo) and Eugene McArdle (Dublin)
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| Republic of Ireland
captain, Sean McGowan, congratulating Jason Cullen (Wexford) after
winning the Youths’ Under-18 competition in Tramore. |
McCormack Wins Inaugural Under-21
Singles
Andrew McCormack from Wexford won the
first INDO-Ranked Under-21 competition when he Defeated Sean Fleming (Roscommon)
in the final at the Rackett Hall Country Club, Roscrea, on Saturday, March 27th.,
2005. The beaten semi-finalists were Darren O’Hea (Cork) and
Jason Cullen (Wexford)
Jason Cullen (Wexford) won the Youths
Singles on the following day with a win over Darren O’Hea from Cork. The
beaten semi-finalists were Paul Dempsey (Wexford) and Gary Coyne (Kilkenny).
Shane Floors the Tripod in West Tyrone
Open
19 year old Shane Pearson from Pomeroy in County
Tyrone provided
the main talking point at the West Tyrone Open in Mahon`s Hotel,
Irvinestown, Co. Fermanagh, when he defeated the World Number Three, Roland
Scholten, in the
last 32 of the Open Singles. And young Shane was unlucky in the next round as
he missed his chance to level at 4-4 against Steve Maish and eventually lost 3-5.
Pictured right is
Shade with Roland Scholten
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Ronnie Boyle (Organiser), Grant
McFarland, Sean McLarnon and Joe Mahon
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The Junior Singles at the same event was won by
Grant McFarland (Tyrone) who defeated Sean McLarnon (Derry) in the final.
Poor Turnout for Youths
Inter-Counties
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Roscommon
team with manager Tommy Beirne
|
Only seven counties entered teams for the 2005
Irish Inter-Counties Championships which were held
at the South Court Hotel in Limerick on February 12th/13th.
The teams were divided into two groups and the
competition was organised on a round robin basis.
Mayo qualified from Group (1) with three wins
and they were followed closely by Wexford who just pipped last year`s
runners-up, Cork, by one point.
Clare won all of their matches in the other
group and they went through to the semi-finals with two points to spare over
the title-holders, Roscommon.
The semi-finals were very close with
Roscommon defeating Mayo 4-3 and Clare getting the better of Wexford
4-2. Roscommon held on to their title with a hard-fought
4-3 victory over Clare.
Cork
3 Mayo
4
Clare 5
Kilkenny 2
Waterford 2
Wexford 5
Roscommon 3 Clare
4
Cork
4 Waterford 3
Kilkenny 3
Roscommon 4
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Photo: Last
eight players in Tramore Youths` Cup 2005. |
Shane O`Connor Wins Inaugural
Under-21 Open Singles
Shane O`Connor from Kildare won the first
Under-21 Open Singles at O`Shea`s Hotel, Tramore, Co. Waterford, at the 2005
Winter Darts Gala.
Shane was in superb form in the competition and
he captured the title with a devastating 4-0 win over Jason Cullen (Wexford)
in the final. The beaten semi-finalists were former Tramore Youths` Cup
winner, John Wall (Cork), and Jason Bolger (Cork)
.
The total prize fund was €400 with €200
going to the winner.
Ted Fox 1 - John Wall 3; Ian
Power 2 - Niall Donovan 3;
Stephen Keating 3 - James Sweeney 0; Shane
O`Connor 4 - Paul O`Shea 0;
John McKenna 0 - Jason Cullen 3; Shane
Mullins 2 - Kenneth Donovan 3;
Jason Bolger 3 - Patrick McAuley 0; Andrew
McCormack 3 - Raymond McAuley 1.
John Wall 3 - Niall Donovan 0; Stephen
Keating 0 - Shane O`Connor 3;
Jason Cullen 3 - Kenneth Donovan 0; Jason
Bolger 3 - Andrew McCormack 2.
John Wall 0 - Shane O`Connor 3; Jason
Cullen 3 - Jason Bolger 1.
Shane O`Connor 4 - Jason Cullen 0
Double for Jason in Tramore Youths`
Cup
Jason Cullen from Waterford became the first
player to win the Tramore Youths` Cup for the second time when he defeated
Ian Power (Waterford) in the final at the 2005 Tramore Winter Gala at
O`Shea`s Hotel.
Jason defeated John McKenna (Kildare) in the
semi-finals while Ian defeated Niall Donovan (Cork)
The beaten quarter-finalists were Amy
Connolly, Jamie Grant, Paul Depsey and Darren Quigley.
Overall it was a great weekend for Jason
Cullen in Tramore as he also teamed up with his Wexford team-mate, Andrew
McCormack, to win the Men`s Open Doubles.
Under-21
Double Header in Kilkenny
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|
Photo: Jason
Cullen |
The
Republic of Ireland Under-21 committee organised a double trials on December
12th.,2004, at the Springhill Court
Hotel, Kilkenny, and once again it was a great success with thirty players
competing on the day.
Two
`Round Robin` competitions were organised with the players divided into
different groups and the winners of these groups playing off in a knock-out
competition. Jason Cullen from Wexford was the top player
overall winning both competitions.
After
the trials the following squad of players was selected to represent the
Republic of Ireland in the Youth Friendship Trophy in Roscrea next May:-
1.
Nicola McKenna (Dublin)
2.
Gemma Keogh (Kilkenny)
3.
Ciara O`Meara (Offaly)
4.
Jason Cullen (Wexford)
5.
Martin Fleming (Roscommon)
6.
Shane O`Connor (Kildare)
8.
Sean Fleming (Roscommon)
9.
Andrew McCormack (Wexford)
11. Nicky
Delaney (Sligo)
12.
Noel Touhy (Roscommon)
14.
Ger Doyle (Tipperary)
16.
Keith Geraghty (Kilkenny)
The
following players are on standby:-
Paul
Dempsey (Wexford), Padraig Kearney (Roscommon), Michael Devereaux (Clare) and
Eamonn Carey (Kerry).
Under-21
Open Singles in Tramore
An
under-21 Open Singles competition has been added to the programme at the
forthcoming Tramore Winter Gala which
will be held on the weekend of January 15th/16th. in O`Shea`s Hotel.
The
under-21 competition will take place on Saturday afternoon at 1.00pm with a
prize fund of €400 at stake.
Later
in the afternoon there will be Open Doubles competitions for men and ladies
at 5.00pm while on Sunday there will be Open Singles events for men, ladies
and youths (under-18).
Under-21
Trials at the South Court Hotel.
The
Republic of Ireland Under-21 committee held the first of three trials at the
South Court Hotel in Limerick on Saturday,
November 20th., with 34 players from around the country attending.
The
players were divided into eight groups and they competed on a round robin
basis with the group winners playing-off in a knock-out competition.
The
overall winner was Jason Cullen (Wexford) who defeated Kieran Burke (Dublin)
in the final.
The
beaten semi-finalists were David Conroy and Sean Fleming, both from
Roscommon.
Congratulations
to the Under-21 committee who organised a great event on the day.
The
second trial will take place at the Springhill Court Hotel, Kilkenny, on
Sunday, December 12th., at 3.00pm.
The
points table after the first trial is as follows:
1.
Jason Cullen (Wexford)
14
2.
Kieran Burke (Dublin)
11
2.
Stephen Ormsby (Roscommon) 11
4.
David Conroy (Roscommon) 10
4. Shane
O`Connor (Kildare) 10
4. Ger
Doyle (Tipperary) 10
4. Sean
Fleming (Roscommon) 10
8.
Martin Fleming (Roscommon)
9
8. Nicky
Delaney (Sligo) 9
10.
Shane Folan (Donegal)
8
10. Andrew
McCormack (Wexford)
8
10. Jason
Bolger (Cork)
8
13. Shane
Mullins (Cork) 7
13, Jerry
Coughlan (Cork)
7
13. John
Sheehan (Limerick]
7
Irish Youths in World Masters
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Grant McFarland and Gemma Keogh
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Gemma Keogh (Republic of Ireland) and Grant
McFarland (Northern Ireland) were the best of the Irish Youths
in the 2004 World Masters Championships in Bridlington.
Gemma had two good wins against Lauren Norris (England)
4-1 and Linda Oden (Sweden) 4-2 before losing 1-4 to Chantal Snyders (Netherlands)
in her Group final. Chantal went on to the final of the
competition where she lost 2-4 to Irene Adrianova from Russia.
Gemma`s younger sister, Shelley, also
represented her country in this event but she lost out in the first round to
Kersten Lederbogen from Germany.
Jason Cullen from the Republic had a
disappointing outing in the Boys` Masters. He scored well but was unable to
hit the vital doubles and lost 1-4 to David Marsh (England) in the first
round.
The other Irish players in the Boys` event,
Noel Touhy and Tony Murray, also went out in the first round.
Northern Ireland`s Grant McFarland had three great wins before losing to
Pieter Collyn from the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. He had earlier
defeated Ryan Maheffey (USA) 4-1, Leroy Nieuvenhuis (Netherlands) 4-2 and
Kevin Muench (Germany) 4-2.
Pieter Collyn lost to the eventual winner, Oskar
Lukasiak (Sweden) in the semi-finals.