Kilkenny are the Irish National Darts Organisation’s Senior Men’s Intercounty Darts Champions for 2008 after a 7-5 win over Kildare. A 7-6 quarter-final defeat to Mayo brought an end to Roscommon’s outstanding run in the Championship, easily the best run for the county in recent years. Roscommon 6 Cavan 6: Roscommon made a bright start with Mick Egan, beating Irish international Aodhagen O’Neill 2-1. Padraig Kearney was then beaten 2-1 in game 2, but Sean Fleming restored a 2-1 overall lead. Cavan then took advantage of some slack Roscommon darts and in a matter of moments took five games on the trot to build up a 6-2 lead. However Paul Carton, Jimmy Reilly, Matthew Hynes and Martin Fleming took the last four games to secure the hard-earned draw. Scores: (M. Egan 2 A. O’Neill 1; P. Kearney 1 S. Tormey 2; S. Fleming 2 D. Skelton 0; T. Concannon 0 S. Dunne 2; S. Finan 0 F. O’Brien 2; P. Tansey 1 B. McGurk 2; M. Murphy 1 O. Grealin 2; M. Kilroe 1 S.Devins 2; J. Reilly 2 P. Reilly 0; P. Carton 2 R. Fenton 0; M. Hynes 2 T. Gilleran 0; M. Fleming 2 E. Tormey 1). Roscommon 7 Meath 5: Mick Egan included a 154 checkout (the highest from a Roscommon player over the weekend) in his 2-1 defeat to Paddy O’Rourke as Meath took an early lead. They went two up when Tony Thacker was beaten 2-1. But a superb mid-match burst for Roscommon began with Martin Fleming’s best performance of the weekend which included 2×180 scores. Patrick Tansey, Sean Finan, Thomas Concannon, Padraig Kearney, Mick Kilroe and the outstanding Jimmy Reilly made it 7-3. Meath took the last two games but the win put Roscommon in a great position going in against Wicklow who were not having a good day. Scores: (M. Egan 1 P. O’Rourke 2; T. Thacker 1 M. Flannely 2; M. Fleming 2 P. Hand 1; P. Tansey 2 R. Walshe; S. Finan 2 J. Muldowney 1; T. Concannon 2 J. McGinnity 1; S. Fleming 0 A. Doherty 2; P. Kearney 2 D. O’Connor 0; M. Kilroe 2 K.Blane 0;J. Reilly 2 S. McDonald 0;P. Carton 0 D. McGuire 2; M. Hynes 0 S. Reid 2). Roscommon 10 Wicklow 2: Wicklow had struggled in the group up to the point of the third round, having been beaten 8-4 by Meath and Cavan respectively. The Wicklow men proved difficult in the early stages with Mick Egan scraping through in a tough clash with Laurence Collins. David Concannon extended the lead before Martin Fleming, who had an impressive previous round win, produced his poorest of the weekend. Nevertheless Padraig Kearney and Sean Finan to got the ball rolling again making it 4-1. Mick Kilroe was beaten in game 6 but a run of six straight games from Sean Fleming, Paul Carton, Jimmy Reilly, Patrick Tansey, Thomas Concannon and Matthew Hynes secured a very impressive win. Meath beat Cavan 7-5 – a result which left Roscommon clear at the top of the group and into the quarter-finals. Mayo 7 Roscommon 6: When Roscommon and Mayo met in the West Coast Challenge three weeks ago in Limerick, Mayo had a 10-2 win. Last weekend, Roscommon fell just short of a remarkable victory. There were few moments of individual brilliance in this match but that was made up for in terms of determination and will-to-win. Mayo took a 2-0 lead, with Mick Egan and Mick Kilroe beaten. Sean Fleming and Sean Finan recovered the situation to make it 2-2. Games were exchanged until it was 5-5. Matthew Hynes gave Roscommon the lead for the first time in his 2-1 win over James McLoughlin – a nervy contest in which the Elphin man left until late to hit form. The batton was passed to his Elf Inn team mate Martin Murphy and in turn to Creaton’s Joe Crawley – both of whom never got a chance at hitting the winning double in either of their games. Scores: (M. Egan 1 P.J. Kavanagh 2; M. Kilroe 1 D. O’Neill 2; S. Fleming 2 A. Peyton 0; S. Finan 2 T. McNulty 1; T. Concannon 0 M. Heneghan 2; P.Kearney 2 M. Murray 1; J. Reilly 1 R. Staunton 2; M.Fleming 2 J.J. Ormsby 1; P. Tansey 0 S. Ormsby 2; P.Carton 2 J. McGann 0; M. Hynes 2 J. McLoughlin 1; M. Murphy 0 T. Lynch 2;J. Crawley 0 N. Philbin 2). Roscommon panel (manager Tommy Beirne): Mick Egan, Jimmy Reilly, Paul Carton (Murray’s). Patrick Tansey, Frank Duffy, Sean Fleming, Martin Fleming (Spel’s). Sean Finan, Padraig Finan,Tony Thacker, Joe Crawley (Creaton’s). Thomas Concannon, David Concannon (McDermott’s). Mick Kilroe, Krystof Wesolowski (Mac’s). Matthew Hynes, Martin Murphy (The Elf Inn). While the men enjoyed one of their better years- Roscommon’s ladies had a very disappointing Championships suffering 5-1 defeats to Carlow, Limerick, Galway bringing their participation to a premature end. Dublin made it back-to-back titles beating Carlow in the final on a 4-1 scoreline. Hannon’s Hotel Roscommon County Darts League: Semi Finals on Friday 15th and Friday 22nd of February.
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