Dundalk darts | The Big Fish has landed in Bridge Street

Event four of the Dundalk and District Darts League Summer Series of Darts, the Thomas and Richard Callan Perpetual Shield, was the latest Competition played in the Northend Bar.

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Thomas and Richard were two lads who grew up in the Northend of the town and sadly passed away at an early age, both leaving very young families behind. The competition is run in their memory and is always well attended by their family.

52 players entered the competition and the quality and standard of throwers each week is on the rise. From the outset, at least a dozen throwers could have been earmarked as the eventual winner.

All boards saw some cracking games taking place. Board four saw Lee Smyth up against the competition's 2024 winner, Alan Dullaghan.

With the game tied at 1-1, Lee was waiting on 60 while Alan was at the oche. Alan took out 119 (treble 19, treble 12 and double 13) to win the game. Gerry Rice, also on board, hit a 14 darter on the way to winning his game.

Board two saw Conor McArdle come through the board as the winner and was unlucky not to play against his dad, Brian, in the board final as Brian lost out in the semi-final.

Board three was filled with some cracking throwers; last year's winner, Michael Gillick, was out to try to retain his title and after beating Daniel Dunn in his first game, he then encountered Simon Wykes in the board semi-final.

Both players hit 180s, and Michael had to hit 12 and 13-dart games to beat Simon and progress to the board final, where he would beat Conor Dunn and go through to the overall semi-final.

Board one saw Stephen Shields out to win the Shield named after his two uncles, and after getting through to the board final he came up against Callum McCrave.

Callum raced into a two-game lead before Stephen pulled a game back, then came a finish to wild celebrations. Callum took out the Big Finish, a monster 170 checkout, and this saw Callum qualify for the overall semifinals.

Callum, at the young age of 16, is making a name for himself in local dart circles. Coming from a family that is steeped in dart history, Callum is in the Dundalk Youth Dart Academy and also throws with the Northend Bully's in the local dart league.

The semifinals saw Alan Dullaghan narrowly beat Michael Gillick in the deciding game while Conor McArdle beat Callum 3-0 in the other semifinal.

The final saw Conor go two games up before Alan got a game back, both players hitting 100+ scores regularly, but it was Conor who would go on to win the final 4-1.

Presentation of the Shield was made by Dicky Callan (Thomas and Richards' dad) and by Sheila Meehan of the Northend Bar. Conor's in a rich vein of form of late and will take some stopping.

Next up in the Summer Series of Darts is event five, The Ralph - Gore Cup (played in memory of dart players who have passed away). This cup, the old Players Six Cup, was first played for in the early 1960's and is a top quality cup.

Format is Open Doubles, with the winners staying on, like a Royal Rumble of Darts (or last team standing), something different in darts and won by Davy Gonnelly and Ray Harte last year, the first time this format has been tried locally.

Registration closes at 8.45pm, and the first games start at 9pm.