Eire Og trio pull out all the stops

It is hard to win a title, but even harder to retain it, but that is exactly what happened last Thursday night when the Eire Og trio of Mark McLernon, Sam Frazer and Chris Cinnamond successfully negotiated their way past 22 other teams to claim the Craigavon District Darts League 3-a-sides title for the second year in a row.

From the start there was plenty of big draws, none more so than league leaders the Vintage A team going head to head against Drumgor A with Drumgor scraping through in the end 3-2 after a tight match.

Drumgor then lost out to the INF A in the last eight, who had beating the Stables A in the previous round, despite the Stables missing three darts for the match.

The rest of the quarter-final draw was intriguing stuff with the Celtic A and B teams battling head to head with the B team getting the bragging rights winning 3-2 on the night.

Eire Og A also came up against their B team in the last eight with the champions getting through 3-1. It was a family affair in the last quarter final when Vincey Culbert Snr and his INF B team lost out to his two sons who were playing as part of the INF C team in a nail biting last leg played in great spirit.

In the semi finals the two victors had surprising easy paths to the final with Eire Og beating the Celtic B team 3-0 and the INF trio of Terry Morrow, Marty Crossan and Dave McCusker winning the three single matches also to progress. Eire Og A continued their impressive form all night in the final when after the singles matches they led 2-1 and a second 180 of the night by Chris Cinnamond in the following pairs game helped Mark hit the winning double to claim the title for deserving champions.