INF trio hold nerve in the final

The young Forresters A team made it through to the last eight when they beat Drumgor C in the doubles match to win 3-1. The tie of the first round was probably the hosts Celtic A against the INF A team and it was the hosts who won when they got the better in the doubles match to make it 3-1. The Trojans C team of Liz McLoughlin , Paul Lewis and Hugh Campbell were left to carry the flag for them and they did so with a 3-2 win over the Forresters B team to move into the last eight.

Their opponents were INF B who had a 3-1 win over Stables B 3-1. Eire Og A won all three singles matches against Celtic B and when last years winning trio of Shane Lennon, Clive Hanna and Stevie Duff also won against Celtic Cit set up a mouth watering quarter-final match against Eire Og A.

Drumgor B moved onto the next round when they won all three singles matches against Clann Eireann and played Stables A who also took all three singles matches against Eire Og B.

Celtic A were the first team into the semi-finals when they won all three singles matches against Forresters A and they were to meet the INF B team of Paul White, Lee Culbert and Roy White after they also won all three singles matches against Trojans C.

The tie of the quarters was over quicker than expected when John Cinnamond, Mark McLernon and Noel Dunwoodie from Eire Og A put out the current holders Drumgor. The only match of the quarter finals that got past the singles stage was game four which went all the way before Stables A won the round robin against Drumgor b.

Semi-final number one seen Paul White take the first singles against John Bishorek Sr. Then John Bishorek Jr and Roy White exchanged numerous 140’s and 125’s only for John Jr to get the double first to level the match. Lee Culbert put the INF back in front when he outscored Neil McCluskey. In the doubles the Bishoreks took the honours over Paul and Roy White.

In an extraordinary leg of darts it was Celtic who stormed into the lead as the INF couldn’t match the scoring of the Celtic trio and at one stage were left on 522 as the hosts were sitting on 80. But when Paul hit a 180 followed by Lee’s ton before Paul hit an excellent 139 the pressure of hitting that double 16 was building and numerous misses by all three Celtic players let Lee in to hit the double and sensationally take the win when it seemed all was lost.

Their final opponents were Stables A who also came from behind after losing two of the three singles matches.

Michael Lamb took the opening singles but it was soon level when Paul White beat Conor Mallon to make it one each. Roy White had another impressive win when he put the INF in front.

Having the darts starting off in the doubles the INF would have been slight favourites at this stage and both teams matched each other score for score to get down to their doubles pretty much at the same time. When the INF missed four darts at doubles to take the trophy the Stables punished them to take it all the way to the last leg for a 1001 shootout with all six players throwing.

It was all about who would hit that all important double first and it was Lee Culbert who gladly hit double four for the win and claim the INF’s third trophy at this early part of the season.

Next week is the halfway point in the league with the fixtures as follows:

Clann Eireann v Celtic; Trojans v Stables; INF B v INF A; Eire Og v Drumgor.