THERE was delight on the double for a Donegal youths teams as they won both the team and single events in a unique cross-border competition held in Tyrone over the weekend.
The young Donegal darters were in fine form as they came out on top in a tournament against two top youth teams from Tyrone and Fermanagh.
And they kept that form up in the singles competition, with rising star Charlie Doherty beating his fellow Donegal player Jack Porter in the final.
The Donegal youths showed just why they are one of the strongest counties as the island as they opened their campaign with a 7-2 win over the home team Tyrone in the Q-Sports Academy Club in Fintona on Sunday.
They then secured an equally impressive 6-3 win over Fermanagh to ensure they would win the competition, with Fermanagh then just edging Tyrone 5-4 in the final group game.
There were class darts displayed throughout, with Donegal's Shane and Jack Porter hitting three maximums each, as did Tyrone's Fionn McAshea, with his team-mate Arthur McKeever hitting two.
The Donegal players also showed their class when it came to checkouts, with Talan Mitchell, Charlie Doherty and Shane Porter all hitting ton-plus checkouts.
The singles event proved to be every bit as competitive with Charlie Doherty making his way to the final with victories over Tyrone's Conan Quinn, fellow Donegal players Talan Mitchell and Aaron McBride.
Jack Porter was in equally good form as he defeated Fermanagh's Jayden McCusker, his brother Shane and another Donegal player, Oisin Meehan, to take his place in the final.
It was 13-year-old Charlie who held his nerve in that to come out with the trophy with a 4-2 win.
The organiser of the cross-border competition, Ronnie Boyle, told Darts In Ireland he was delighted with how it went and has plans to extend it in the future.
Ronnie said: "I'm involved with some very good youths players here in Tyrone so it was a great experience for them to come up against teams from two other counties and especially those lads from Donegal, who are so strong.
"It was a great experience for our lads and they will learn from it.
"I will be aiming to have more tournaments like this in the future and would like to see teams from other border counties like Monaghan, Cavan and Leitrim get involved, and probably a team from Antrim too."
Ronnie said he would love to see a full 32 county All Ireland competition in darts.
Currently the INDO Inter Counties only includes the 26 counties from the Republic of Ireland, with the other six counties under the umbrella of the Northern Ireland Darts Organisation (NIDO).
But Ronnie said: "It would be great to have a full All Ireland competition, which we finally have now in pool and we obviously have in the GAA.
"I know there are rules to be followed but we have a group of youth darts players here in Tyrone who would love the chance to play in an All Ireland.
"Maybe it could even be done on an invitational basis at first.
"In the meantime, we will look to have more of these cross-border tournaments, as it's good for our young players, and I'm delighted that Donegal got involved in it and hopefully more counties will too."
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