The Connaught's Darts Final.
The Ship Inn, Sligo Town 5 Creaton's, Loughlynn 3.
The Ship Inn won the 2008 Connaught Darts Championships Final on Friday night in Walsh's Public House, Charlestown, defeating Creaton's of Loughlynn on a 5-3 scoreline.
Creaton's put up a good performance against a team who all represent Sligo at county level- but some poor finishing at crucial times, swung the match in favour of the Sligo men.
Mick Egan and James Reilly won the first pairs game for Creaton's. Despite not playing well, they picked off the win with good finishing, to defeat Geoff Cox and Bob Alexander. Sean Finan and Tony Thacker seemed set for victory in the second pairs, but poor finishing allowed Sean McGowan and Joe Beirne in to take the game. This was a big let off, as Creaton's should have won this game. Paul Fox and Michael Cox then took the last of the pairs against Joe Crawley and Pat Reid, to give the Sligo men a 2-1 lead at the interval.
In the first game of singles, Paul Fox defeated Mick Egan in the opening game. Egan missing shots for the first leg, and Fox hitting a 15 darter to win the game with Egan in a good position. James Reilly got Creaton's back into it, with a good win against Bob Alexander. Reilly played well and wrapped up his game with a 96 checkout. Sean Finan levelled the match at 3-3 with a win over Geoff Cox, with Finan scoring and finishing well. Tony Thacker put in a good performance for Creaton's against Joe Beirne, but lost out with some poor shots at checkout time allowing Beirne to get in for the win, and give the Ship Inn the 4-3 overall lead. Again, that was a game that maybe Creaton's should have won. Sean McGowan then defeated Joe Crawley in what was to be the decisive game. McGowan- previously Irish Number 1 and current Irish International coped well with any pressure he felt and hit the only 180 of the night on his way to a good win.
Presentations of trophies to both teams and that of the prestigous Connaught's Cup were made by tournament organiser Pat Walsh.