Last Saturday the 2012-13 ODA Parish Cup Final took place between the defending champions Holm and Westray who were playing in their first final. The Standing Stones Hotel was the venue and a good crowd had turned up to watch. With changes in both teams since they last met in 2010, a close game was anticipated.

First match on in the doubles was Freddie Tait and Leigh Shearer for Holm against Westray’s skipper Simon Parry and Trevor Rendall and the Holm pairing got their team off to a perfect start with a solid 2-0 win. Brian Stevenson and Sean Stanger then doubled Holm’s lead as they beat Ian Rendall and Leslie Drever 2-0.

Holm were hopeful of making the score 3-0 when the experienced pairing of Holm captain Bruce Moar and Billy Ward stepped up to the oche however a convincing 2-0 win to Westray’s father and son combination of Jim and Billy Brown brought about a loud cheer from the Westray support and made the match score 2-1.

Onto the singles and first up for Holm were Bruce and Billy and they wasted no time in making amends for their poor showing in the doubles by both winning their singles 2-0 against Simon Parry and Leslie Drever respectively to increase the Holm lead to 4-1.

Once again Jim Brown stopped the Holm momentum with a 2-0 win over Brian Stevenson to make it 4-2 in Holm’s favour before Sean Stanger played well to beat Trevor Rendall 2-0 to restore Holm’s three game lead.

Holm stalwart Leigh Shearer wasn’t firing on all cylinders and Ian Rendall beat him 2-0 to raise Westray’s hopes of a fight back to make the score 5-3 before Freddie Tait took on Billy Brown in the last singles of the first half. Billy took the first leg and looked like he might reduce the match deficit to one game however steady Freddie had other ideas and won the next two legs to give Holm a 6-3 half time lead, a crucial swing.

The Standing Stones provided both teams with some much needed, and appreciated, half time sustenance by way of soup and sandwiches before the card was written out for the second half. Both skippers had switched the order of the doubles around and amazingly all three doubles matches were exact repeats of the first half.

First up were Bruce and Billy versus Billy and Jim and they made no mistake this time as they hit form to avenge their earlier defeat with a 2-0 win. Freddie and Leigh had to work a bit harder this time but still succeeded with a 2-1 victory over Simon and Trevor.

In the final doubles of the match Brian and Sean took on Ian and Leslie again and with the match level at a leg apiece Brian took out a treble twenty, double two checkout with two darts to put Holm 9-3 ahead – different!

Westray now had a mountain to climb but set about their task cheered on by chief cheerleader Jimo Rendall. First Jim Brown won 2-0 against Brian Stevenson and this was promptly followed by an excellent 2-0 win for Ian Rendall over Sean Stanger to make the score 9-5. Then Simon Parry returned to form to beat Leigh Shearer 2-1 to make the score 9-6 and the Westray faithful were beginning to wonder if they could actually do it.

Fred Tait stopped the Westray party in its tracks though as he beat Leslie Drever 2-0 to secure the win for Holm and give Holm the cup for the second year in a row. With the result now known the last two singles matches were played with Bruce beating Billy Brown 2-1 and Billy Ward and Jimo Rendall renewing their old North Isles rivalry with Billy getting the better of Jimo 2-1 to make the final score 12-6.

With some of the Westray team having to rush back to catch the ferry home Robbie Stanger, on behalf of the Orkney Darts Association, called on West Mainland Darts stalwart and guest of honour Norrie Sclater to present the cup to Holm captain Bruce Moar. Bruce on behalf of the Holm team thanked all who had turned up to watch and support, the Standing Stones for being a tremendous host venue and especially the Westray team for their participation.

Unofficial Man of the Match has to go to Freddie Tait with four wins out of four, the only player to achieve that on the day, and Fred also held his nerve to throw the match winning dart. Well done Fred! Westray’s star man was Jim Brown with three wins and Jim also had one of only two 180s in the match, the other coming from Ian Rendall.