Fonacab Central Dart League

In the latest series of matches played in the Fonacab League Donegal Celtic played cracking darts to claim the spoils against Shamrock United, Clonard 58 were on song as they saw off Casement and Trinity Lodge put in an awesome performance to rout Crumlin Star.

O’Donnells got the full quota of points in scoring a great win over Trinity Celtic, St Matthews just got home in front of Mc Dermotts, and Hibs get the nod over home side Casey’s.

Donegal Celtic welcomed the visitors from Ardoyne Shamrock United to their comfortable Suffolk Road clubrooms, and a cracking contest was the result.

The Celtic lads made a pleasing start and soon had the visitors under the cosh as they streaked into a clear early advantage.

Shamrock dug deep and for a few games steadied the ship, but the home side were in no mood to let their opponents off the hook and they soon responded to the Shamrock resurgence by finishing in style to register a magic 13-7 win.

Scoring sound 2-0 wins for Celtic was Seamus Armstrong Jnr, Martin Flynn (great to see Martin back in the fold), Joe Corr, Alan Hanna who impressed in hitting the maximum (180), Ray Gilmore and Paul Healey.

Shamrock did the business with nice arrows coming from Rab Lyttle, Paddy McAleese and man of the match Peter Fitzpatrick.

One match ended one apiece with Celtic winning with John Mc Laughlin and United answered with Tony Kelly.

The week’s top clash featured Clonard 58 versus Casement, and a tight game was expected but in reality it turned out to be a one horse race as at the half way stage Clonard led 9-1 and the game was over as a contest.

Casement found their range later in the contest but could not pull back such a huge deficit eventually going down on a 12-8 score line.

Scoring 2-0 wins for Clonard were Jim Boardman, which included a 83 outshot, Tony Corr (22), man of the match Micky Grady who obliged in 21 and 22 darts and Peter McDonnell  Jnr (21).  Casement had a brace of 2-0 champions in Charlie Johnston and Tucker Clarke. Four games ended 1-1 with Clonard winning with Joe Dineen, Sean Patterson, John Turley and Martin Corbett (22).

Casement replied with sound darts coming from the impressive Aiden Dorothy Felix Cush who slotted home a great 91 finish Gerry Mc Cormick and Jim Lynch.  League champions Trinity Lodge were having their first home game of the season, and fully expected to get the full quota of points.

They did it in style by completely overwhelming their opponents Crumlin Star, who could only chalk up one win in a one-sided contest.

On the mark for Trinity were Paddy McCorry, who also hit the big 180, James Bolton, who looked sharp in registering a magic 15-dart win, Gerry Walsh, Conor Wylie, Paddy Tumelty, man of the match Davy McCusker, who won in 18 and 21 darts, which featured an 88-finish, Martin Crossan, Frank McCabe and Danny Delaney.

There was one drawn game with Trinity winning with Michael Bolton and Crumlin Star getting their sole win with Tommy Henry saving the whitewash.

O’Donnells welcomed league new boys Trinity Celtic to their clubrooms and a cracking contest was the result.

Both sides gave a good account of themselves and it proved to be the sharper finishing of the O’Donnells men that was the difference between two well matched sides, the final score being 12-8 in their favour.

Three O’Donnells men won 2-0 and they were man of the match Eddie Robb, Stevie Toland who had a nice 171 in his win, and Tucker Kearney.

The talented Kevin Campbell was the Trinity Celtic top player; six games ended all square with O’Donnells doing well with Jim McStravick, Ricky Saddler, Anto McAllister, Tom Kearney, James McStravick and Brendan McStravick.

Celtic answered with top drawer darts coming from Damien McStravick, Coke McAteer, Gary Di Lucia Colum McGoran, Mark Di Lucia and Tommy McCorry.

St Matthew’s travelled over from the Short Strand to cross swords with Falls Road outfit Mc Dermotts, and a close run contest was the outcome.

Both sides had their noses in front at various stages in proceedings, but at the important finishing line it was the St Matthews team who held sway, just eclipsing their opponents on an 11-9 score line.  A quartet of St Matthews’s lads hit the jackpot registering 2-0 wins and they were Joe O’Kane, man of the match Martin Irwin, Con Kielty and John Consadine.

McDermott’s responded with a trio of 2-0 champions with great darts coming from Sean Fitzpatrick, Cailme Burns and Sean McCurdy.

Three games ended one apiece with McDermotts winning with Oliver ‘Black Arrow’ McMahon Paul Stafford and Ray Lavery.

St Matthew’s did well with Jimmy Lavery who had a tremendous 153 outshot (the highest in the league this year,) Pat McGahon and Jimmy Bradley.

In the final game Casey’s entertained the men from Hibs and both sides played cracking darts to entertain the big gallery in attendance.

This turned out to be a close- run affair and both sides had opportunities to claim the bragging rights, but Hibs soaked up all that Casey’s threw at them and then responded with some aplomb to claim the outright win on an 11-9 score line.

Four Hibs players had 2-0 wins and they were Patrick Mc Keown, Richard Mervyn (21), man of the match Gerard O’Hanlon (21) and Adam McDaid.

Three Casey’s men did likewise coming home 2-0 winners with smashing darts coming from Ciaran McGuinness, Vinty Lenzi and Simon Kanerick.

Three games finished one apiece with Casey’s scoring with Henry McCann, Darren Corbett (21), which featured the maximum 180 and Ciaran McKay.

Hibs answered with neat darts coming from John Doyle, Paul Ray and Stephen Murphy.

All teams are reminded that next week sees the start of the first knock out cup of the new Fonacab season with the Shamrock club in Ardoyne hosting the much sought-after Eddie Corbett Memorial Cup.

Six teams are out on Wednesday 14 September and the other six playing on Thursday 15.

Two teams will go through on each night to contest the grand finals in the Shamrock club on Wednesday 21 September.  Teams are reminded to be there for the last call at 8.45pm with games starting soon afterwards. As usual its good luck to all competitors.

To keep up to date with all league news all you have to is go to the new League web site by visiting centraldartsleague.com