Hagg Bar fly the flag for Scotland at Blackpool
Squad turn in notable performances against Britain’s best
The all-conquering Hagg Bar showed their talent on the grandest stage as they took on the nation’s best at the World of Darts national finals.
Three teams from Hagg travelled to Blackpool to compete against teams from all over the country. The tournament involves teams of six players taking part in triples, doubles and singles matches.
At the singles tournament, the players fared well as several of the players got through to their Board finals.
With a total of 116 players taking part it was a very high standard and Andy Boulton of Hagg Bar A and Mark Barilli playing for Hagg Bar B got past their Board finals and into the semi-finals where they were drawn against each other.
This took the players away from the floor stage of the tournament and onto the main stage, complete with MC and cameras. Mark Barilli held his nerve better than Andy Boulton and ran out 3-0 winner to put himself in the national final where he lost out 3-0.
In the ladies tournament where there were 42 entries there were three entries from Hagg Bar and Nikki Coleman was unlucky to go out of the competition at the last 32 stage but the performances of the day came from Karen Shand of Hagg Bar C and Mary McKinnon of Hagg Bar B as they came through the field and ended up playing each other in the final.
Karen took the first leg with a great 98 finish before Mary took the next leg and take the final to a deciding leg.
It was Karen that held her nerve and after just missing a 114 checkout she hit the winning double in the next throw to become Ladies champion for 2018.
Hagg Bar A produced their pub’s best team performance as they played against the Old Bridge Inn – although they had to dig deep to power through.
A slow start saw them losing the first of the triples games but they fought back and levelled at 1-1 before starting the doubles matchs.
The doubles went the way of Old Bridge 2- 1, and the Hagg Bar side knew they would have to perform in the singles to have any chance of progressing.
They started playing well and won four of the first five games to level the match 5-5.
Dougie Low then stepped up for the A team and settled the match to give the bat their first victory of the day.
The win put them into the last 16 of the tournament and next up they faced Brickmakers B. This proved to be another hard game and after some missed doubles, they found themselves behind again after the first leg.
The match then entered familiar territory as it swung one way then the other before reaching 5-5. Once again, Low was on as last man and he produced a repeat performance to put them through to the final eight.
Unfortunately, this is where their dreams of success faltered as the took on The Bluebell from Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Yet again the match went all the way to 5-5, but this time the luck was not on their side as they narrowly missed out on a semi-final spot.
Elsewhere, Hagg Bar C contested the first match of the day against Union Bar, from Chester, and the team found themselves behind early on as Union rattled off both triples legs and the first of the doubles.
Hagg C managed to pull a score back but their English opponents took the last doubles match before winning the first two singles matches to take the win.
Hagg Bar B were next on the oche as they faces Brickmakers from Brierley Hill and they too fell behind the triples legs before they rallied in the doubles.
But Brickmakers showed a bit of class and finished off the match 6-2.