Orphir v Holm

The Sands Hotel in Burray was the venue last Saturday for the 2013-14 ODA Parish Cup Final between defending champions Holm and Orphir who were playing in their first final. It was the first time that these two teams had met and it promised to be a close game.

Orphir had made the journey from the west by bus with their merry band of supporters in tow. Holm resident and Orphir player Neil Croy, spotted standing by the side of the road with an ‘Orphir for the Cup’ sign was picked up en route.

After writing out the cards it was agreed by both team captains to play the match out on one board which would be a test of the player’s stamina as the game progressed!

First match on was Kevin Critchlaw and Orphir skipper Adam Savage against Holm’s Bruce Moar and Billy Ward which the Holm boys won 2-0 to start their defence in good style. Former West Mainland Doubles champions Ian Findlay and Francis Ballantyne held their nerve to defeat Holm’s Freddie Tait and Leigh Shearer 2-1 before Neil Croy and Richie Ballantyne beat Brian Stevenson and Sean Stanger two straight to put Orphir into a 2-1 lead after the first doubles.

Onto the singles and Orphir’s Kevin Critchlaw went down 2-1 to a rejuvenated Brian Stevenson to level the match before Neil Croy put Orphir back in front with a 2-0 win over Sean Stanger, much to the delight of the increasingly boisterous Orphir cheerleaders!

The bar was starting to fill as the time approached tea time, creating an excellent atmosphere, as Holm skipper Bruce Moar had a 2-0 win over Ian Findlay which included a 110 checkout. This levelled the match at three all before Billy Ward put Holm in front with a 2-1 win over Adam Savage.

Back came Orphir, through Francis Ballantyne, who had a great deciding leg to defeat Freddie Tait to make it 4-4 before Leigh Shearer beat Richie Ballantyne 2-0 to give Holm a narrow 5-4 lead at half time.

As the teams enjoyed a delicious plateful of the Sands’ mince and clapshot at half-time both skippers wrote out the card for the second half and with the exception of Ryan Tulloch replacing Sean Stanger there wasn’t much difference to either team.

Into the second half and again Bruce and Billy beat Kevin and Adam 2-0 and for the first time in the match Holm had a two game cushion. Once again Ian and Francis beat Freddie and Leigh 2-1 to reduce the deficit back to one game in Holm’s favour before Neil and Richie lost their doubles this time to Brian and Ryan two straight to make the score 7-5 in to Holm with just the second series of singles to go.

A repeat of the first half saw Kevin and Brian square up again and this time, despite Tone hitting a fistpumping 104 checkout in the second leg, Kevin held on to win 2-1 to make the overall score 7-6. Next up was Neil Croy and Bruce Moar and despite Bruce starting the deciding leg with a 140 followed by a ton Neil came back to win the game and level the match at seven all.

Billy Ward just did enough to see off Ian Findlay 2-1 to put Holm back in front before Orphir stalwart Francis Ballantyne summoned all his experience to beat Ryan 2-0 to tie the game at eight all with only two ties left to play. The question on everyone’s mind now was, was it qoing to go to the play-off leg?

The penultimate game was Orphir’s Adam Savage against Freddie Tait and Freddie took the honours 2-0 to leave Holm needing one more point to be the first team to win the cup three years running. In the final game Richie Ballantyne took on the very experienced Leigh Shearer in a very tense game before Leigh showed nerves of steel to take out double five to win the game 2-0 and the match 10-8 for Holm.

Robbie Stanger, on behalf of the Orkney Darts Association, congratulated Holm and gave Orphir some words of condolence stating they will be back in the final soon before calling on the Sands’ proprietor Evelyn Gunn to present the trophy to Leigh Shearer who hit the winning double.

On the day it was a good close match played out in front a good natured crowd with the craic in the bar everything that the Parish Cup darts should be. Only two players won all four of their games and that was Francis Ballantyne for Orphir and Billy Ward for Holm.