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)

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 27^th., 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

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

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.

Full Results:

Group (1):                                              Group (2):

Cork            3    Mayo            4                Clare            5        Kilkenny        2

Waterford     2    Wexford        5                Roscommon 3        Clare             4

Cork            4    Waterford      3                Kilkenny       3        Roscommon  4

Mayo           5    Wexford        2

Cork            3    Wexford        4

Mayo           4    Waterford      3

Semi-finals:

Mayo           3    Roscommon  4

Clare            4    Wexford        3

Final:

Clare            3    Roscommon  4

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.

Full results:

Last sixteen:

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.

Quarter-finals:

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.

Semi-finals:

John Wall 0 - Shane O`Connor 3;  Jason Cullen 3 - Jason Bolger 1.

Final:

Shane O`Connor 4  -  Jason Cullen 0

Double for Jason in Tramore Youths` Cup

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

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)

7.    Ted Fox (Wexford)

8.    Sean Fleming (Roscommon)

9.    Andrew McCormack (Wexford)

10.  Ken O`Donovan (Cork)

11.  Nicky Delaney (Sligo)

12.  Noel Touhy (Roscommon)

13.  Kieran Burke (Louth)

14.  Ger Doyle (Tipperary)

15.  Shane Mullins (Cork)

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 

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.