EXCITEMENT reached fever pitch in UCD on Tuesday night as the Dublin college held, and then won, the first ever Intervarsity darts tournament.
The home team were in superb darting form all night as they fought off the challenge of tough teams from National University of Ireland, Galway, Maynooth University and University College Cork (UCC) to land the trophy.
With darts at an all time high in Ireland right now, the standard was predictably good as the players entertained a raucous crowd in UCD's Astra Hall with high scores and excellent finishing.
It was UCD's Jake Grainger, a regular competitor at ADC Vault events, who was the star of the show as he hit the highest checkout and the most amount of maximums on the night.
Jake was joined by UCD team-mates Eanna Kinsella, Toby Giesenschlag, Fionn 'The Bandit' Bannister, 'Risky Whisky' John Walker and 'The Hayesmaker' Daniel Hayes, as they first impressively defeated UCC 3-0 in their semi-final and then recorded a 2-0 win over Galway in the final.
The win over Galway - who had top inter-county player Pearse Mackle, who made it to the last 16 of a recent PDC Development Tour in the UK, amongst their ranks - sparked wild celebrations amongst the UCD faithful in the crowd.
It capped off what had been an electric atmosphere in the hall, with top referee Jack Higgins having his work cut out to keep the best of order amongst a noisy crowd.
In the opening match of the night, Maynooth were unlucky to lose 2-1 to Galway in a game of three sets of doubles that went right down to a very last leg.
In the other semi-final, UCD gave notice of what they were all about as they won all three games against UCC to advance to the final with a 3-0 win.
The home team kept the momentum going in the final as they won the opening two doubles matches to ensure overall victory in the competition.
John Ryan, of UCD Darts Society, couldn't hide his delight at his team's win in a tournament he hopes will now become an annual event.
John told Darts In Ireland how UCD Darts Society is the largest darts society in Ireland with over 1,000 members.
He said the inter-college darts tournament now has the potential to become the darting equivalent to the GAA's Sigerson or Fitzgibbon Cups.
John said: "The UCD Darts Society has previously run two highly successful internal events, both of which featured a full stage setup, live cameras broadcast onto large screens, and several hundred students in attendance.
"Building on this success, this intervarsity tournament was the largest varsity darts event in history, and we expect it to become an annual fixture in the university sporting calendar.
"Darts is a rapidly growing sport in Ireland, attracting an increasingly large and engaged audience, particularly among younger people."
TEAMS:
UCD - Jake Grainger, Eanna Kinsella, Toby Giesenschlag, Fionn 'The Bandit' Bannister, 'Risky Whisky' John Walker and 'The Hayesmaker' Daniel Hayes
UCC - Alex Kavanagh, Jack Giltinan, Sean Downey, Jack Lehane, Stephen O'Leary and Ryan O'Sullivan
GALWAY - Luke Prescott, Oisin Holland, Ben Byrne, Pearse Mackle, Daniel McGarry and Ryan Murphy
MAYNOOTH - Cillian Duffy, Nathan Harry, Tadgh McCauley, Padraig McCarney, Steve Dillon, Alex Berrigan
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