COMMENTS
Well Done, Tom !
Kilkenny County Secretary and
recently-elected member of the INDO committee, Tom Keogh, has left no stones
unturned to improve the lot of the Republic of Ireland youth players.
With very little help Tom almost
single-handedly organised teams to compete in the 2006 Youth Friendship
Trophy in Scotland and the Europe Youth Cup in Germany and then immediately
set about organising trials for the 2007 Friendship Trophy in Northern
Ireland..
These trials were held at various venues
throughout the country and Tom has now put together a strong squad of
players who should be well prepared for next year’s event.
Over the next few months Tom will be
organising ‘Friendly’ matches around the country against local teams in an
effort to tune up the players for the task ahead.
The first of these matches will be
played on Saturday, September 30th., at O’Shea’s Hotel in Tramore
where the Under-21 squad will compete against a Munster selection.
Success in Europe Youth Cup.
After many years of deliberating about competing
in the Europe Youth Cup, the Irish National Darts Organisation eventually
gave it’s blessing to send a team to the 2005 event in the Netherlands - - -
and what happened? - - - - They arrived home with ten Silver Medals
and three Cups !
For some time many people involved in the sport of darts in the Republic had
been advocating participation in this prestigious competition as a way
forward for the sport in this country but up to now their suggestions were
falling on deaf ears.
Thanks to the perseverance and the dedication
of people like Tommy Beirne and Tom Keogh their voices were heard at last
and the rest is darting history !
We now look forward to our youth players
competing in the World Cup in Australia and in the World Masters in
Bridlington and hopefully bringing back more silverware.
Another Opportunity Lost !
Both the INDO and the NIDO
missed a golden opportunity to promote the sport of darts at under-21 level
when they failed to include a match in this age group in their annual Friendly
International which was held in Roscommon.
After the success of the
under-21 competitions already held in the Republic in the early months of 2005
and with the emergence of some of the former youth players in the North into
the ‘Bigtime’ surely they could have organised at least a 5-a-side
under-21 match to keep the momentum going!
INDO to Organise Under-21
Competitions
Good news for under-age darts is that the INDO
has decided to organise a series of
ranked under-21 singles competitions in conjunction with their normal ranked
events and to operate a separate under-21 rankings list.
The first of these competitions will be held on
Easter Saturday, March 26th., in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, as part of the
Rackett Hall Classic Weekend. Entries will be accepted
from 1.00pm and the competition will start at 2.30pm. As usual there will be
a Youths` Singles on Sunday at 12 noon.
What a Pity !
On the weekend of January 15th/16th., 2005, the
organisers of the Tramore Winter Gala added an Under-21 Open Singles
competition to the programme thus giving players at that level their first
opportunity to compete against players in their own age group in
an open event and pick up some nice prize money at the same time.
Unfortunately, another competition in Roscommon
over the same weekend `clashed` with the Tramore event preventing the
players `West of the Shannon` participating in what turned out to be a great
competition.
The success of the Tramore event proved that
there is a demand for under-21 competitions and hopefully we will see more
of them being organised over the coming months.
Republic of Ireland Under-21 Darts
It`s nice to see that someone has
taken the reins and set the wheels in motion to do something for under-21 darts in the Republic of Ireland.
Tommy Beirne (INDO Youth Officer and Team Manager) has organised a
committee to assist him in his task of fund-raising and selecting a team for
the 2005 Youth Friendship Trophy which is scheduled to be held in the Republic
next year
Hopefully
this committee will be able to put together the strongest possible team for
this event with the view of going one step further next time after
finishing runners-up in Derbyshire this year.
The event has been booked for the end of May at the Rackett Hall
Country House in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, and the committee wish to thank Mr.
Eamonn Cunningham (Manager) for his tremendous co-operation in staging the
tournament.
Various fund-raising events and
competitions will be held over the coming months and anybody wishing to help
should contact any member of the committee listed below.
Chairman - P.J. O`Meara,
Secretary - Tom Keogh, Assistant
Secretary - Mary O`Meara,
Treasurer - Phil Keogh, Assistant
Treasurer - Tommy Beirne. Committee
- Richie McMahon and Eamonn Cunningham.
The secretary`s address and contact details are as follows:-
Tom Keogh, Castlebanny, Mullinavat,
Co. Kilkenny. (056-7768043 or 087-6552909)
Suggestions:
(1) The committee should consider
organising a number of ranked under-21 tournaments at locations around the
country and hopefully entice some of the players who are in in `Limbo` back
into the game. There is no
doubt that many of the youth players who went over-age found that the standard
of senior darts was too high and they dropped out of the game.
The committee should not waste this
opportunity of encouraging them to come back into the fold.
(2) One suggestion that has come
from a number of players is that an under-21 match should be included in the
Friendly Fixture between the Republic and Northern Ireland next year.
In this year`s fixture a 4-a-side
youths` match was played - surely both organisation`s could muster up more
youths` players than that?
A 7-a-side youths` match plus a 5-a-side under-21 match, for starters, would
be very attractive and would
certainly draw the fans.
Now is the time for talking
- pressure should be put on the INDO and NIDO to sit down and talk and do
something constructive for the youth players both north and south of the
border.
