Youth Friendship Trophy
2005:
Youth Friendship Trophy in Roscrea - An Outstanding Success
The Youth Friendship Trophy was played in the Republic of
Ireland for the first time on the weekend of May 27th. to 29th.and
the many months of hard work by the organising committee paid off with an
excellent tournament enjoyed by players and spectators alike.
The venue, the Racket Hall Country House Hotel, was
first-class, the hospitality was brilliant and the ‘craic’ was mighty as
teams from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic battled over
the weekend for the honour of being the best Under-21 darts team in these
islands.`
Photo: Shane Mullins, Nicola McKenna and Shane Pearson.
The warm-up competition on the Friday night was a ‘Mixed
Triples’ and it was won by Nicola McKenna (R.o.I.), Shane Mullins (R.o.I.)
and Shane Pearson (N.I.).
The main event commenced on Sunday morning and was played
on a ‘round robin’ basis.
The title-holders and favourites, Northern England Youth,
got off to a flyer in their first match with an 11-4 win over Northern Ireland
while the Republic of Ireland also started well defeating Scotland 9-6.
In the second round of matches the England team showed
their class once again with another 11-4 win, this time against the host
country,and Scotland had an 8-7 win over Northern Ireland.
While the Northern England team easily accounted for
Scotland 13-2 to lift the trophy for the third time all eyes were on Board (2)
where the two Irish teams were battling it out for the Silver Medal.
Northern Ireland won this ding-dong battle on an 8-7
scoreline but it was not good enough to get them into second place as they
lost out by a single point.
Photo: The Team Managers and captains pictured in the
sun-drenched grounds of the Racket Hall Country House Hotel.
To round off the weekend a Singles competition for the
youths was organised and the winner was Andrew McCormack (Republic of Ireland)
who defeated Daniel Willmott (Northern England) in the final.
Congratulations to the organising committee on a
magnificent weekend and we all look forward to Scotland next year.
Roscrea 2005
The 2005 Youth Friendship
Trophy will be staged at the Racketthall Country House
Hotel in Roscrea, Co.
Tipperary, on May 28th/29th. with under-21 teams from
England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland competing.
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Republic of Ireland
squad pictured with sponsors and committee members. |
The competition will be played
on a round robin basis and the timetable for matches is as follows:
Saturday at 10.30am:
Parade of teams.
Saturday at 11.000am:
Republic of Ireland v Scotland;
Northern Ireland v Northern England
Saturday at 3.00pm:
Republic of Ireland v Northern
England; Northern Ireland v Scotland.
Sunday at 11.00am:
Republic of Ireland v Northern
Ireland; Northern England v Scotland.
Sunday at 2.30pm:
Presentation of trophies.
The Irish teams are as follows:
Northern Ireland
Ricky Dunlop, Gary Dunlop, Sean
McKinney, Steffan McCusker, Ryan Balmer, Jonathan Holliday, Shane Pearson, Tom
Gibson, Sean Donnelly, Ashley Rainey, Tony Murray, Brian Nelson, Hanna Finlay,
Mikaela Elder and Janice Wright.
Republic of Ireland
Nicola McKenna, Gemma Keogh,
Ciara O’Meara, Jason Cullen, Martin Fleming, Shane O’Connor, Ted Fox, Sean
Fleming, Andrew McCormack, Ken O’Donovan, Nicky Delaney, Noel Touhy, Kieran
Burke, Ger Doyle, Shane Mullins and Keith Geraghty.
