Erris crowned kings of Mayo darts

Erris made history at the Ivy Tower last Saturday when they won a first championship title at the Mayo District Darts Team Championships in Castlebar.

The event is one of the highlights of the Mayo darting calendar, with the county’s top darts players representing their leagues in the team event against the best of the other town and district leagues across Mayo.

Shane McHale, Erris district team manager along with Kevin Rowland, played last year for South Mayo B team having moved back from England but has since returned to his Erris roots, with his family originally from the Barony.

Such is the interest in darts in Erris currently is that they were able to enter a second team into the district league for the very first time, with the team managed by Christy Doocey and captained Matthew Walsh. The second team had a solid debut outing, eventually losing 7-5 to Ballina 2 in the plate semi-final.

Both teams had players as young as 16 and over 15 players between the two teams incredibly had never played anything outside of local darts. With teen sensation Luke Littler capturing the public’s attention at the World Darts Championship at Christmas, young people have never been more interested in the sport and ideas were then in place to have those young players involved at the district event.

“There was young lads mad for darts. The whole Luke Littler happened at Christmas and we thought we could get 40 or 50 people up there and it snowballed,” McHale told the Western People.

In the group stage, they beat South Mayo B and East Mayo respectively 10-3 as well as a 11-2 victory Westport 2 to top their group, their only defeat of the day coming in a narrow 7-6 loss to Castlebar 1.

They edged out Ballina 1 in the semi-final 7-5 to set up a showdown with reigning champions South Mayo 1, who came back from 4-0 down to win seven sets on the spin against Castlebar 1 in the other semi-final. The men from the Barony were beaten 7-1 by South Mayo 1 in last year’s championship semi-final but on this occasion flipped the scoreline for a maiden championship title, with McHale hitting the winning double. The video of the celebrations when he hit double 11, which can be seen on the Erris Darts News & updates Facebook page, has gotten thousands of views since.

McHale has many friends on the South Mayo team – one of them, Damien Connolly, was a groomsman at his wedding - and he paid tribute to the side ‘for setting the high standard over the past 10 years that we all are striving for’.

“They’re great lads and a serious outfit. Half of them travelled to Belmullet on December 27 for a memorial competition for my father. My father also played in the South Mayo league for years before he passed away.” 

McHale went on to thank all involved for a memorable day including the 42 players/supporters wearing Erris jerseys on the day; Mixie McGuire of The Valley Inn Bar, Pullathomas, their main sponsor and venue for the Rankings leading up to the event; Padriac Conroy of McDonnells Bar, Belmullet, for sponsoring the bus; Rachel McBride for the brilliant photos, videos and updates on Facebook throughout the day; and tournament organiser Martin Geraghty and all the staff/management in The Ivy Tower Hotel for a fantastic event and hospitality.

“I’ve known Martin going on 20 years and he’s always very precise. He’s very professional and a bit ahead of his time when it comes to darts. With this district championship, you don’t hear of anything like this in the country. It was a super, super day.” Erris 1 squad: Cathal Tighe, Thomas Moran, Noel Keane, Pat Deane, Tony Maloney, Harry Vancroft, Eamon Fallon, George Maloney, Padraig Monaghan, Jimmy Lavelle, Jack O’Grady, Josh Reilly, Alec Bielinski, James Heffernon.

Managers: Shane McHale, Kevin Rowland Joint Captains: Brendan Conway, Aiden Maloney