The Blackwater Valley Darts Youths Singles Competition was held in Kit Roche’s bar in Buttevant last Friday night. Last year’s winner was Aaron Ryan and all were watching to see if he could lift the cup for the second time. First game was Danny Linihan against Patrick Holmes; the first leg was tight and both players were finding it hard to hit the doubles, and it was Patrick who finished on double one. Patrick won the 2nd leg and in the 3rd checked out double 8 to win the match.
The second game was Jason Carey against the best girl player in town Ciara Haugh, both players representing Kibos. Ciara started best, winning the first and second legs, but Jason dug deep and won the third and with some great scoring won the fourth also. So it was all square and went to a deciding leg. Both players were just warming up and all eyes were on this one, but Ciara’s experience pulled her through to a 3-2 victory and into the next round.
Aaron Ryan (the defending champion) was up next against Damian Carey . Aaron, who made the long journey from Horgan’s bar, won the first leg and got double tops twice to clinch the second. In the third leg, Damian was improving and got steady scores and was very unlucky not to finish, but it was last year’s champion who went through to the semi-final.
Ray Harrington was against Chris Holmes in the next game. It has to be said that this was one of the faster games on the night with Chris blistering the board. Ray took a leg off of Chris but Chris won 3-1.
Next was Patrick Holmes against Ciara Haugh. Ciara kicked off and finished the first leg on double 8, then Patrick fought back and took out 54 to win the second leg. The 3rd and 4th legs were shared and this was definitely the best game to the night so far. The 5th leg was brilliant with both players finding the lipstick (60), but Patrick took out 44 to win the leg. In the next leg Ciara was amazing and started off with three tons and followed with 137 to finish with ease. Last leg and Ciara was going well but Patrick was having none of it, and when he got down to 48 he never looked back and beat Ciara this time. Well done to both players, a great game.
The final was a Horgan’s pairing of Chris and Patrick Holmes who are closely related. Chris started with a couple of 100s and won the first leg and continued on to win the second but it was in the third leg that Patrick, who learned all his dart tricks from his uncle the legend Mick Holmes, won the third. The 4th leg was brilliant with great scores, and it was Patrick who finished double tops. Chris won the 4th 5th and 6th legs. Patrick fought hard but couldn’t keep up to the powerful scoring of Chris.
So now the Blackwater Valley Darts had a new champion for 2016 and Aaron Ryan handed the cup over to Chris.
On behalf of Blackwater Valley Darts, I would like to thank the players who took part and congratulations to Chris and many thanks to Kit Rochs for hosting the event.