Maureen’s make it league and cup double

THE Blackwater Valley Darts Cup final was played in Kit Roche’s bar in Buttevant between the Bridge House and Maureen’s Bar. These two teams got to the final last year and it was the Bridge who came out on top with nothing between them.

The Bridge put the experienced Eddie O’Rourke first against Ken Lomasney.All these games start with a double off and both players got off to a flying start. Lomasney missed the bull for an 84 check-out then O’Rourke, as straight as an arrow, hit double four for the first leg win.

In the second leg O’Rourke had a 76 checkout and in the third leg Lomasney got down to 16 but O’Rourke’s finishing on the night was brilliant and it finished 3-0 to the Bridge man.

Nicky Sherman and Brendan Broderick played the second game and it was not long before Broderick put his stamp on this game with an 80 check out in the first leg. The second leg Sherman had a fantastic 100 checkout finishing on double tops. Brendan won the third leg and hit a solid double tops to win his game 3-1.

The third game was between Darren Jones and Klaus Richter. This was a fairly even game but both players were finding it hard to finish. Then the German missed double four for a 77 checkout but went on to finish on double four. Jones hit double tops to take the second leg and Richter won the third leg to even it up at two apiece.

In the last leg Richter was slow to start and Jones took advantage of this and came out a 3-2 winner.

Steve OMahoney and John Leonard were up next in the fourth game and it was Leonard who got off to the better start with a good 100 score and finished double 10 with his first dart. In the second leg it was even enough but when Leonard got near a finish he took out triple 14, double 16 for an impressive win.

The third leg OMahoney played well and scored a great 140 and checkout 61 to win. The fourth leg could have gone either way and O’Mahoney had a chance to finish on the bull but then Leonard hit double top for the win 3-1.

Alan Foley and Peter O’Donovan were up next for the last game of singles and Foley was in blistering form. He won the first two legs and was never put under pressure by O’Donovan. In the last leg Foley hit a 177 and finished with a 58 checkout for a very impressive win.

The score now was 3-2 to the Bridge House and up first in the doubles was Richie Willis and Mike O’Rourke against Pat Leahy and Brendan Broderick. The first leg was won by the Maureen’s pairing and in the second leg O’Rourke had a great 120 finish.

The third leg Broderick played well and his partner finished with a 70 checkout. O’Rourke finished 74 to take the fourth leg and in the last leg the pressure was telling on both sets of players.

Broderick hit a great 127 to leave Leahy on double five and O’Rourke got a 90 score to leave Willis on 52. Both teams were finding it hard to finish this game off but Broderick hit double one for a 3-2 win.

So now it was a repeat of last year with both teams even at 3-3.

The last game was between Eddie O’Rourke and Alan Foley against John Leonard and Danny Butler. After the first leg Maureen’s were ahead in this match for the first time but then in the second leg O’Rourke hit a 104 finish to even the score again.

In Leg three Butler got good scores and these were matched by Foley. The Maureen’s lads were first to a double and Leonard hit double eight to take his side one leg away from rising the Cup.

In the fourth leg Leonard got a 152 start and with Butler throwing steady throughout it was Leonard who hit double four for a magnificent win for Maureen’s 3-1.

It was a great night of darts with both teams giving it everything to make it a fantastic final. The standard of darts was very high with some great individual efforts from O’Rourke and Foley from the Bridge House and also Leonard and Broderick from Maureen’s Bar.

The night would not have been a success without the help from the owners and staff of Kit Roche’s bar and also thanks to Daniel and Raymond for refereeing all the games. Well done to both sets of teams on reaching the final and congratulations to Maureen’s on winning the Cup and League double.