Ireland’s Pub Players Dart Tour

 No 1

In The 2006 Blackwater Cottage £1000 Open

Over 50 players travelled from throughout Ireland to the Blackwater Cottage in Emyvale Co. Monaghan at the weekend past to take part in the first of many planned events in the new Ireland’s Pub Players Dart Tour which will be taking place in venues north and south of the boarder which sees the tours official ranking system set in place with the top eight seeds seeded from tournament to tournament.

The tournament got underway at 1-pm on the dot with the format starting of with the best of seven legs followed by the best of nine from the last-16 and the final best of eleven with all players liking the long format giving players plenty of time to settle down.

The days play seen outstanding darts, a few shocks along the way, big finishes which included 141 from Ramie Williamson (Armagh) and 135 from the beating finalist Mickey Mancell (Tyrone) and also the 4-0 score-line defeats in the first round of Gary Bell (Antrim) and Dwaine Kennedy (Dublin) by the impressive Gary Crawford (Fermanagh) and the young Stephen Mc Donagh (Tyrone) but at the end of the day there was only one mans name everyone was taking about and that was “The Dromore Machine” Felix Mc Breaty who put a awesome display throughout the tournament to be crowned champion.

It all started in the last-64 for the Dromore Machine defeating Mark Brady (Tyrone) 4-0 and followed that up with the same score-line over Monaghan’s inter county player Paul Carvell in the last-32.

The last-16 seen Felix pushed all the way having to come from 2-0 down over his County team mate Paul Mein just getting over the line 5-4 and then produced another fine performance in the ¼-finals over N. Ireland top player Ricky Dunlop on a 5-2 score-line.

In the semi-finals Felix once again produced the high standard of play to whitewash Fermanagh’s Eamon Mc Govern 5-0 to reach his and the tours first final on Ireland’s new Pub Players Darts Tour.

While the Dromore Machine was waiting to see who his opponent was going to be in the final his eyes was on the bottom half of the draw when another Tyrone man Mickey Mancell was making all the headlines with his fantastic display he was putting in round by round to reach the final including the impressive 5-4 victory over Irelands top player Tom Kirby (Kildare) in the ¼-finals with his other victories over Willie Hull, Damien Mc Govern, and the young up and coming start Mark Summerville in the semi-finals.

The final seen Mickey Mancell unable to repeat his form from the early rounds while Felix produce another great performance to run out a 6-1 winner to be crown the 2006 Blackwater Cottage individual champion and goes into the next event as the tours number one seed. The game which Mickey won in the final seen him produce a cracking 135 finish the second highest out shot of the day.

All in all it was a fantastic days play which all players enjoyed every much but the last word of praise must go to host venue which was spearheaded by the Blackwater Cottage manager Kelly Mc Anenly and her hard and friendly working staff who provided a great amount of refreshments for all the players and spectators and last but know means least a big thank you to Jim Nugent for all his hard work from behind the scenes he put in to make this event a major success.  More Photos available in Gallery