Cream of the crop coming to Roscommon this weekend

This weekend sees one of the highlights of the Irish darts calendar when the West Coast Challenge visits The Abbey Hotel in Roscommon Town.

The darts extravaganza gets underway with a Mixed Open draw pairs competition on Friday, January 19th. It will be a relaxed and fun event to get the weekend started. All players, regardless of experience or ability, are more than welcome to take part. Names will be taken between 5.30 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., with games to start at 7.30 p.m.. Entry is €10 per player.

Saturday sees the main event — the men’s, ladies’ and youths’ team events. First darts are at 11 a.m. for all competitions. An expected crowd of 500 plus will attend.

A men’s event with 16 county teams will be held, with entries from Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Limerick and Longford taking to the stage.

Ten ladies’ teams from counties Clare, Mayo, Cavan, Leitrim, Roscommon, Donegal, Limerick and Galway will battle it out for top honours.

Eleven youths’ teams will also compete, with Donegal, Westmeath, Mayo, Roscommon, Limerick and Galway set to compete for the West Coast Challenge title.

Sunday sees the Abbey Hotel-sponsored Roscommon Open take place where men's, ladies’ and youths’ open singles take place. Names will be taken between 10.30 a.m. and 11.30 a.m.. Games will commence at 12 noon.

Entry fees will be as follows: Men, €20; Ladies, €15, Youths, €10. A guaranteed top prize of €500 will be sure to bring the cream of the crop of Irish darts players to the county. The event will be open to all darts players throughout the country.

Roscommon Darts wishes to extend its sincere thanks to the Abbey Hotel management and staff for their assistance in organising this huge event, as well as their generous sponsorship of the weekend.

The county men’s, ladies and youths are, as always, sponsored by Hannon’s Hotel, who have been a fabulous sponsor to teams for many years — Roscommon Darts wishes to thank them greatly. Sincere thanks also to two new additional shirt sponsors this year — Ross Engineering and Naughton Kitchens, who have come on board in a busy year and have been hugely suppportive.

Every Roscommon player has individual sponsors for their intercounty year ahead. These sponsors have been detailed on Roscommon Darts’ social media pages over the past month. Roscommon Darts wishes to extend its thanks to all these sponsors on behalf of the players and county teams.

Finally, many local businesses have sponsored boards for the West Coast Challenge. They will receive coverage on those boards at the event. Roscommon Darts will extend a warm welcome to all the counties taking part but, of course, it is hoped to see success for the local county.

The Roscommon men’s teams are managed by Tommy Beirne, Brendan Mullarkey and Martina McKeon. Recent challenge games against Sligo and Galway have generated great hope for both teams. They are wished all the best at the event.

For the first time in recent memory, a ladies’ team from the county will take to the oche competitively. A recent challenge game against Galway showed that the ladies were more than able to compete, despite limited competitive experience at intercounty level. They are wished the best of luck. Hopefully, it’s the start of great things to come for ladies’ darts within the county.

Finally, best of luck to the county youths’ team. Having lost a number of talented players who are now overage, youths’ darts has returned to Roscommon this year with some top class potential emerging from recent practice events.

Who knows — the next Luke Littler may be closer to home than we think!

The Abbey Hotel will be the place to be this weekend. Whether you're a player, spectator, or have just caught the bug for darts over the Christmas period, all are welcome.

There is no cover charge for the event and all are welcome to what will be a spectacular weekend of darts within the county.