Gillick takes title at Dundalk Summer Series of Darts

Week Five of the Dundalk Summer Series of Darts saw the second running of the Thomas and Richard Callan Perpetual Shield. The brothers both passed away very early in life and were well known, especially around the lower end of town.

The large attendance in a packed venue made for a great night of darts. 44 players were in the draw, and the standard of darts never fails to entertain those in attendance.

Board One saw John O'Brien lay down an early marker with a win over John Donnelly in the prelims, and he was soon claiming more big scalps with a win over Daniel Dunn.

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Mervin McCaffrey and Hughie Shields also won on Board Two before being eliminated in the following round.

Mervin would, unfortunately for him, come up against John O'Brien, who was building up a good head of steam, and Hughie would be eliminated by Summer League of Darts table topper Conor Mc Ardle.

John would go on to win the board with a 2-0 win over Conor in a high-scoring game.

On Board Two, Conor Dunn was taking no prisoners, and after beating Joe Davidson and Brian McArdle, he would go on to beat Ciaran Treanor in a very high-scoring game.

But unfortunately for Conor, he would come up against Gerard McKeown, who was coming under the radar but putting in some eye-catching performances.

Board Three saw Dundalk Youth Darts player Colin Taaffe coming up against one of his coaches, Cara O'Shaughnessy, and Colin would get the better of Cara before coming up against another Dundalk Youth Darts coach, Paddy Gibney, and this was a real ding-dong battle with Paddy just hitting the double in the decider.

Also on Board Three, young Alan Callan was playing in a competition named after his two uncles.

After getting a narrow win over Richard Wykes, who was a great friend of Thomas and Richards, young Alan would then go on to lose in the decider against Padraic O'Rourke.

The display from Alan in his first ever competitive game showed maturity beyond his years, and with a bit more experience in competitive games, he will be one to keep an eye on in the future.

Both Paddy and Padraic would be eliminated by Michael Gillick, the man from Bailieborough, who is always a popular figure in local competitions.

Meanwhile, on Board Four, Mark Kerley took the first game against James Callan, but James dug deep to get himself back in the game, and after hitting tops to win the second game, he repeated the trick in the next game to get the better of Mark.

James would come up against Aidan Conroy in the next round. Aidan would get the win over him, with Aidan a very underrated player to those who don't know him.

Also on the board, Fintan Rogers would get the better of David Callan in their deciding game.

Cian Roddy was progressing nicely, but unfortunately for him, he couldn't get the better of Aidan Conroy, who would then get the better of his cousin, Robbie Kieran, in the board final.

The semi-finals would see John O'Brien face his cousin, Gerard McKeown, and Gerard's form was letting up, and he would go on to reach the final.

Meanwhile, the other semi-final was a real classic, Aidan Conroy against Michael Gillick.Despite Aidan hitting a Shanghai finish on the 18's and throwing brilliant darts all evening, he just couldn't get the better of Michael and lost 3-2.

The final was really one for the ages. Gerard McKeown went one up and Michael Gillick won the next two to put himself in the driving seat, but then Gerard dug deep and won the next, before each player won another game before it went into the decider.

In the decider, Gerard broke like an Olympic sprinter from the blocks with 100, followed by a 180 and then a 140.

Michael started off with a 45, 140 and 134 but still trailed by just over 100 points with Gerard getting down to a finish.
But Michael would dig deep to hit a single 1, treble 19 before hitting double 18 to seal the win and take the title.

The organisers would like to thank all their sponsors for their continuing support, and also Mullens, Roden Place, for again providing the grub this week. Next up is the Quigley Family Cup next Thursday night.