John O'Shea Wins Ireland Players' Championship

John O'Shea was crowned Irish darts champion when he won the 2010 Ireland Darts Players' Championship in Kilkenny last Sunday and became the first Cork player to capture the coveted title.

After six gruelling rounds of the Championship thirty two of the top throwers in the country qualified for the Grand

Finals at the Springhill Court Hotel.

The qualifiers were divided into eight groups and John was drawn into one of the toughest sections.  His first match was against another Cork player, Peter Quinn, who was runner-up in these finals last season.

Peter won this match 5 - 2 leaving John with a mammoth task to qualify for the last sixteen but O'Shea bounced back strongly with two wins to advance.

Quinn won the section but he went out to the top-ranked Shane O'Connor while O'Shea went on to eliminate Wexford's Jason Cullen 5 - 3.

Two other Cork players, John Paul Dowdall and Craig Sproat, also won through from their groups but they departed the competition at the knock-out stage.

John O'Shea was improving with every round and after defeating Clare's Martin Conroy 5 - 3 in the quarter-finals he went to eliminate Northern Ireland No.1 and previous champion Daryle Gurney {Derry} by six legs to five in the best match of the day.

John clinched the title with a 6 - 3 victory over Republic of Ireland International, Connie Finnan from Limerick.  After this great victory John O'Shea has his sights set on the Tom Kirby Irish Matchplay Championship which is a qualifying competition for the PDC Ladbrokes.com World Championship.

This competition will be held at the Green Isle Hotel on Sunday, August 29th., and full details and entry forms

are available from Michael O'Sullivan {087-2648291}

Cork was not represented in the finals of the Ladies' Championship in Kilkenny where Denise Cassidy {Fermanagh}

retained her title with a 4 - 1 win over Maeve O'Connor {Carlow}.

Dean Forde - Runner-up in Youths' Plate

Our sole representative, Ashley Walsh, in the Youths' Championship failed to qualify from his group while  Dean Forde

was beaten in the final of the Youths' Plate by Anthony McMahon {Limerick}.

Click Here for Results

Cork Players Support Batten's Disease Sufferers

Kay O'Carroll, Chris Collins, Leslie Condron and Fiona Heffernan

 

The members of the Cork Darts Players' Association are never wanting went it comes to raising money for charity and such was the case at the Deanrock Lounge Bar on Monday, June 14th., when they handed over a cheque for € 500 to the Saoirse Foundation who do tremendous work for the sufferers of Batten's Disease.

The CDPA members raised the money at the recent finals of the Denis McGrath Memorial

Singles Championship.      The work undertaken by the Foundation may be viewed on www.beeforbattens.org

Double for the Tory Top

John Donnellan (Captain Tory Top 1) with Pat Bourke (Gleeson Group)

 

The Tory Top Inn recorded a unique double victory at the Deanrock Lounge Bar when their two teams won their respective divisions of the Gleeson Group Knock-out Trophies.

In Division (1) the Tory Top (1) had two titanic struggles against the Abbey (1) and Horse Shoe (1) and had to overcome tie-breakers in both the semi-final and final before capturing the title for the first time.

The other beaten semi-finalists were the Goblet (1).

Pat Bourke (Gleeson Group) and Stephen O'Leary (Captain Tory Top 2)

Tory Top (2) completed the double when they defeated the Ardmanning 9 - 5 in the final of Division (3).

Both of the semi-finals in this division needed tie-breakers to decide the outcomes with

Tory Top (2) defeating Rob Roy and Ardmanning ousting Kirby's Korner (2).

Brian Treacy Captain Southside) with Pat Bourke (Gleeson Group)

The Southside Bar came out on top in Division (2) with 9 - 5 victories over the Harp (1A) and Harp (2A) in the semi-final and final, respectively.

Ferry Arms were the other losing semi-finalists.

Sincere thanks is extended to the Gleeson Group for sponsoring the final competition of the CDPA season and gratitude is also extended to John McSweeney and his staff at the Deanrock for their hospitality on the night.