The annual finals night for the Lydford Darts League was held at the Fox and Hounds with all eight teams represented on the night, writes Mark Watson. 

With around 100 people in attendance, the atmosphere was good and the evening commenced with the team game event; one leg of 1001, with each of the six team members taking turns to throw.

The first games went the way of Fox B over pub rivals W.T.F.A, and the Blue Lion beat the Tossers.

We then had the White Hart overcoming  the Copper Penny and finally the Blacksmith Arms coming out on top over Bratton Clovelly.

The semi-finals were both tight matches, with the White Hart just pipping Fox B and the Blue Lion edging it against the Blacksmith Arms.

The final between White Hart and The Blue Lion would be played at the end of the night, with the other finals.

Next up was the doubles competition.

First was the defending champions Ketts and Ernie (Fox B) against Matt and Mark (The White Hart).

Matt, who had previously won the singles, was the difference between the teams, even hitting a 180, to see the White Hart through.

The next game saw the Tossers team (Martin and Peter) battle well against Bratton Clovelly (Scott and Jake), but it was not enough as Bratton won 2-1.

Next on was W.T.F.A (Henry and Oliver), against the Copper Penny (Tom and Andrew). And again, in a tight affair, W.T.F.A. prevailed 2-1.

Next up was The Blacksmith Arms (Colin and Jonny) taking on The Blue Lion (Baz and Mike). This went in favour of The Blacksmiths, 2-0.

Quickly followed the semi-finals, with Bratton Clovelly taking the Blacksmiths to the wire, but the boys from Lamerton just did enough to go through to the final 2-1.

The second semi-final between White Hart and W.T.F.A was a tight affair, and here again, the consistency of Matt edged it, with the White Hart winning 2-1.

Next up was the singles. First up was The Copper Penny (Dan Cole) against W.T.F.A (Martin Smale). They had met previously in the K.O. Cup final, and the same outcome occurred here with Dan coming out on top in a high-scoring game, 2-0.

Next on was The Tossers (Tom Dean against Fox B (Ian Downing). Tom played well but the current Captains cup winner, Ian, was always in control and ran out the 2-0 victor.

This was followed by The Blue Lion (Colin Edwards) v The Blacksmith Arms (Richard Toop). Colin has been consistent all season and continued that in this match to prevail 2-0.

Finally, it was the old rivalry between Bratton Clovelly (Tom Hughes) and The White Hart (Dan Tossell). With both players hitting high scores, Tom edged it 2-1, but it was close.

The first semi was between Bratton and The Blue Lion, again both players were throwing good darts and it went down to a deciding game with Colin (Blue Lion) getting the winning double.

The second semi was between Fox B and the Copper Penny. This game was expected to go to the wire, but Ian (Fox B) played exceptionally well to win 2-0

First up in the finals was the team game, between The White Hart and The Blue Lion.

WH came out of the traps quickly and got themselves in front and maintained the advantage and got down to the double first. With the Blue Lion 300 points behind, all seemed lost, but with a never say die attitude, and some luckless attempts at the double by WH, Barry’s team hit the winning double to take the trophy for the BL.

The doubles was next between White Hart and The Blacksmith Arms.

In a tense final leg, WH got to the double first, and Mark decided to throw his only straight dart of the evening, and won it for the WH.

The final game of the night was the singles final between Fox B’s Ian Downing and The Blue Lion’s Colin Edwards.

In front of a great crowd, the game commenced with both players scoring well, and Ian won the first leg. Colin tried to fight back in the second leg, but Ian was playing the more consistent darts. Ian won the match to add the singles title to the Captain’s Cup won earlier in the season.

Roll of honour:

League winners - Fox B; K.O. Cup winners - W.T.F.A; Captains’ Cup - Ian Downing, Fox B; Singles Cup - Ian Downing, Fox B; Doubles Cup - White Hart; Team Cup - Blue Lion.

A huge thank you to Jason, Dave and staff at the fox and hounds for hosting the event, to all the teams for playing this season and for making finals night a success and for the presentation before the evening began.