DARTS | Kearney stuns Reenan to win Division One Singles title

Donnelly and Murphy win Premier and Division Two trophies

It was singles final night in the Dundalk and District Dart League on Thursday night with the action taking place in the Windmill Bar.

With eight throwers from each division looking to be crowned singles champion in their respective grade, a great night of darts were in the offing.

Premier Division Singles

In the Premier Division, John Donnelly went about laying down a marker by hitting 180, 140 and 100 with his first three sets of darts against another top thrower in his division, Stevie O’Hara.

After beating Stevie, it looked like John’s main opposition on the night would be his county teammate Johnny Lawlor. As luck would have it, they met one another in the final with John winning 5–1 to be crowned Premier Division Singles champion.

Division Two Singles

In Division Two, Paul Kelly was looking to add another trophy to his collection after winning the divisional doubles with his brother Finbarr the previous week.

Right from the very first dart, Paul was fancied by a lot of people to win the competition but Darren Murphy had other ideas and after securing two wins by the smallest of margins, Darren had his eyes fixed on glory against Paul in the final.

With both men playing for different teams in The Bodhran, bragging rights were also on the line and Darren went on to win a very tense final 3–2, his celebration showing just how much the victory meant to him.

Division One Singles

From the outset, Division One was always going to be a tough division to call with Séan Doyle, Jim McKevitt and Alan Reenan all staking an early claim for the title.

Another one to throw his hat into the ring was Stephen Kearney, a relative novice on the local dart scene but a player intent on causing an upset. After beating Mark Connolly and Séan Doyle on his way to the final, Alan Reenan stood in Stephen’s way.

Alan was looking to add the singles title to the doubles title he won the previous week with Gerard McKeown, making this final a real ‘David v Goliath’ affair.

With Alan leading 2–0, the title looked to be out of range for Stephen but to his credit, he kept plugging away and got his just rewards when he hit double eight to secure a quite remarkable 4–3 comeback win to much celebration in his home venue.

Open Shield final

The Open Shield finals night takes place in The Avenue Inn next week where The Stags Black face The Bodhran and The Stag’s Blue take on The Nest in what promises to be another night of great local darts.