Champions forced to work hard to retain their lead

The Paisley darts masters were back in action throughout another week of impressive performances.

In the First Division, the match to watch was definitely at the Hagg Bar as the pub’s A team hosted the Flying Horse A team.

The visitors kept the champions on their guard for the whole night and as the singles games ended with the score tied at 3-3, it really was anyone’s game.

Hagg Bar came out firing to take the first of the doubles 2-0 to give them a slender lead before being pegged back as Flying Horse took the next doubles 2-0.

It was now down to the last doubles to settle the points and, with the opposing captains playing each other, it proved to be a tense game.

And it was Hagg Bar A who held their nerve to take the match with a fine 2-0 doubles win and claim victory with a 5-4 win in what must be one of the closest games of the season.

Elsewhere, St Peter ’ s were determined to keep up the chase for the title when they hosted Keystone A as they were in no mood to offer any sort of hospitality, demolishing the visiting team 8-1.

Pickwicks also kept up their challenge as they hosted the Arthurlie Inns and showed how much of a threat they are, with a similar 8-1 scoreline.

In fourth place, Railway hosted Burgh Bar who started the match just two points behind them, and it was the Paisley side who proved too strong as they recorded a 7-2 win to edge closer to the coveted fourth position.

They now sit on the same points but Railway hold the advantage in leg difference by three legs.

Meanwhile, Hagg Bar C climbed to eighth place as they travelled to Court Bar and came away with the points after a very close 5-4 win. It moves them up at the expense of Arthurlie Inns, who drop into ninth place after their 8-1 defeat.

The treble 20 took another pounding this week as seven players recorded 10 maximums, with Drew Callary from St Peter’s hitting two, along with Hagg Bar A’s Evander Stevenson and Richie Baillie.

There were 15 games finished in 18 darts or less, with the pick of these coming from St Peter’s Andy Callary with a brilliant 13-dart leg.

The highest finish of the night among the seven ton-plus checkouts was also from the St Peter’s team as Drew Callary took out a 122 finish.

Into the Second Division, and the players gathered to play in their division doubles with 36 pairs looking to secure one of the eight places at finals night.

At Inkerman Bowling Club, it was a successful night for The Hazel Arms pairing of Richie Walker and Mick Hughes as they won through after beating Alan Ferguson and Willie Bambrick from Gleniffer Hotel 3-0 in the board final.

In The Kelburn honours went to the Pockets team of John Garitty and David Park Jnr after they beat Neil and John Anderson of Cafuffals 3-1. These teams will now play each other on finals night.

At Flying Horse, it was a successful night for Alan Ferguson and Alan McFadyen of Gleniffer Hotel as they got through to finals night by beating the Cafuffals team of Willie Baillie and Gordon Brown. They will face Keystone winners Tam Allan and John McInally, who play in Keystone and made full use of home advantage to win their board final 3-2.

And in Pockets, the successful Gleniffer Hotel pairing of Michael Clements and Rab McTavish got their win over Cafuffals pair David McGinn and G Yule to see them stake their place on finals night.

They will face the Tartan Rose qualifiers Kris McIntosh and Gordon Anderson from Cafuffals after they won though, beating Tam McHaffie and Gareth Cameron from Inkerman 3-0.

Rounding off proceedings in Cafuffals, the Pockets team of Jeff Buttar and Alan Smith was pushed all the way in the board final by the Flying Horse B team of Neil and Willie Mitchell before edging the victory 3-2.

They will now face Derek Allan and Robert Whitehill from Hazel Arms after they beat Donald Alexander and George Downie of Inkerman 3-1.