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Orkney Darts Association Parish Cup Final 01 April 2010 ODA Parish Cup Final Four months after the first dart was thrown in the competition, after twelve matches involving 105 players from thirteen parishes, Sandwick are the first ever Orkney Darts Association Parish Cup Champions after a very impressive 11-7 win over Holm on Sunday afternoon.
The Commodore in Holm was the venue for the final, so in theory Sandwick were conceding home advantage to Holm, but it didn’t show as Sandwick got off to a great start, winning two of the first three doubles matches to take an early 2-1 lead. The first singles match saw Sandwick captain Ian Linklater beat Holm’s Robbie Stanger 2-0 to give Sandwick a 3-1 advantage before his Holm counterpart Bruce Moar defeated the newly crowned Kirkwall Open Champion Stevie Linklater 2-1 to reduce the deficit to 3-2 in Sandwick’s favour. Holm’s Leigh Shearer brought the scores level at 3-3 with a 2-0 victory over Robbie Brass but unfortunately for Holm that was as close as they would ever get to being in front. Sandwick won their next three matches 2-1 through Alex Stanger, Martin Johnston and Paul Foubister beating Billy Ward, Colin Ross and Sean Stanger respectively to give them a convincing 6-3 half-time advantage. Although Sandwick had built up a convincing lead, with seven of the nine matches in the first half going to the deciding leg, the match was far from over.
Sandwick’s three leg advantage at half time allowed them the luxury of listing some of their top players at the bottom of the card in the second half. Holm needed to get points on the board early on in the second half to put the pressure on and they started well, winning two of the three doubles to reduce the Sandwick lead to 7-5. Robbie Stanger showed a return to form with a fine 2-0 over Martin Johnston to make it 7-6 and with all eyes on Bruce Moar to see if he could level the tie at 7-7, Sandwick’s Jim Kirkness put in an inspired performance to beat the Holm captain 2-0 and put Sandwick 8-6 ahead and give them sight of an overall victory. Leigh Shearer wasn’t ready to throw in the towel though and he beat Alex Stanger 2-0 to make the score 8-7 before Stevie Linklater returned to winning ways with a 2-0 win over Holm’s Billy Ward. That meant the score was now 9-7 and Sandwick had secured at least a draw. Next on was Sandwick captain Ian Linklater against Colin Ross and it was fitting that an excellent 95 checkout by Ian in the second leg was enough to see Sandwick become the first ever Orkney Darts Association Parish Cup Champions. In the final match Paul Foubister beat Sean Stanger to make the final score 11-7 in Sandwick’s favour.
Although the scoring was of a very high standard throughout, with many ton-plus scores being thrown, Paul Foubister recorded the only ton-eighty in the final. Once the Sandwick celebrations abated Holm duly challenged the new Parish Cup champions to play the gallon in the desperate hope of grabbing some consolation from their day. After a bright start by Holm in the 1001 team leg Sandwick gradually clawed their way back and, with 69 remaining, Sandwick’s Martin Johnston hit single 19 with his first dart to leave fifty. Whilst he was contemplating setting up a double for his last dart the chants of ‘Bull’ from the opposition convinced him to go for glory and he duly delivered the dart right into the centre of the bull to rub salt into the Holm players already gaping wounds!!
All that was left to do to finish off an excellent afternoon’s darts, which was played in the best of spirits, was thank the Commodore for hosting the final and invite Guest of Honour and local darts legend Jimmy Miller to present the cup to the Sandwick Captain Ian Linklater.
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