Difficult first night for new top teams
Paisley and District Darts League’s new season kicked off with a baptism of fire for the newly promoted Division One teams.
In their first game in the top flight recently crowned Division Two champions Kelburne Cricket Club hosted Railway Inn and it was the visitors that got off to a flying start, winning the first two games before Kelburne got on the scoresheet.
With Railway winning the next two games and Kelburne winning the last singles game, the Railway team finished the singles games leading 4-2.
The cricketers won the first of the doubles to make it 4-3 but the Railway Inn team would not be deterred from a first night win and took the points in a tense doubles game that Andy Bryan and Garry Jardine won 2-1. The last match went to Kelburne, with the final result ending up 6-3 to Railway Inn.
Arthurlie Inns had probably the toughest match of the night as they faced champions Hagg Bar A at home.
The visitors were in no mood to take it easy on the ‘new’ team in the division as they powered to a rampant 9-0 win, only losing two legs throughout the game.
Almost matching the Hagg Bar A scoreline were Flying Horse when they faced the Court Bar at home.
They came away with a stunning 8-1 victory to sit second in the table.
Hagg Bar C sit third after they secured a 6-3 away win against Railway Inn B, with the highlight of the game being a first 180 score for their youngest player David Colton.
Clachan Arrows claim fifth in the table after night one as they finished their game away to The New Saints with a 5-4 win.
Division Two also had a couple of new teams looking to make their mark and after night one it is Pockets B that top the table after a fine 7-2 away win at Hazel Pirates.
The Pockets team are closely followed by Keystone B, Keystone C and Pockets A who all racked up 6-3 wins.
Keystone B’s win came from an away tie against Clachan Bar, relegated from the top tier last season, while Keystone C’s points came from a home win over Tartan Rose.
Pockets A, another of the new teams joining the league this season, started off in winning fashion with their points coming from a home game against Gryffe Inn.
In the last of the games in the division Charleston Arms beat The Hazel Nuts 5-4 to claim their opening night points.
There were a total of 19 maximums scored this week with Hagg Bar A captain Evander Stevenson and Pockets A player Brian Maley both scoring two.
There were 21 legs of darts finished in 18 darts or less with the best of these being 14 dart legs from Hagg Bar A’s Evander Stevenson and The New Saints’ Alan Ferguson Jr. The highest finish of the night came from the game between The Clachan Bar and Keystone B where Steven Ross hit a 128 finish for the home team.