Summer league starts with a bang

Carsons top early thanks to 18 and 20 dart wins

The Airdrie and District Darts League kicked off a summer of sport last week.

The Summer League got underway with seven teams under orders at the oche during June and July.

The Summer season also features an Open event on Bank Holiday Monday, as well as singles and doubles tournaments which will be restricted to Summer League registrations only.

The league business began with the rules awarding a point for each leg won and a bonus point for winning the match.

The top four teams in the table would then go the the semi-finals and the others into a consolation tournament.

First up, The Clansman tackled Carsons, who built up an early lead thanks to 18-dart and 20-dart wins for Derek Cunningham, the Caldercruix lads clawed their way back into the match and the favourites had to win the last two pairs matches to secure victory.

In the end, the current leaders won the tie, but credit goes to Peter Lynch after a fine 16-dart win for The Clansman, which put the pressure on their rivals.

Workmen’s B sailed into a 6- 0 lead against Wilson Arms but got complacent.

Despite a Gerry Brown 15-dart win, they only led 7-5 at the turn.

However a clean sweep of the pairs matches dried up any sweaty patches The B Boys may have been showing.

Wooden spoon winners The Workmen’s A soon put memories of that behind them with a 9-6 win over Coatbridge lads AJ Joiners.

The Joiners led 5- 1, but then completely fell apart. They will look to get back on the mark soon after this shock defeat.

The Workmen’s B then got the better of The Clansman.

Scott Gibb played well with a brace of 19-darters and Cammy Reynolds got in on the action with a 17-dart win.

Although the Workies did battle into a good lead The Clansman never gave up and a 19-dart win with a 180 for Wullie Gilmour was a pleasure to watch.

In the end, they were too far behind to win the match but took some vital points.

The Workmen’s A were brought back down to earth with an expected hammering against Carsons and The Workmen’s C had their first match of the tournament against Wilson Arms.

The C lads - despite being a few players short - won convincingly, but four legs dropped may come back to haunt them if they are to fulfil their own expectations of challenging Carsons for the title.