County team steal the show with great team performance at the Leinster’s and will now head to the All-Ireland’s full of confidence.
The Wicklow County darts team had a day to remember at the Leinster championships in Kilkenny on Sunday when they reached the semi-finals of the competition.
Results in previous years had not been great but the County team travelled down to the Marble city full of confidence and there was a belief that the current squad could put the disappointments of recent years behind them.
Wicklow were drawn in a group that included Westmeath, Kildare and Carlow. It was seen as a fair draw and the Garden men made a great start against Carlow in the opening game.
Despite going 2-0 down, they battled back strongly and produced some very good darts to take the opening game 7-5. Next up was Westmeath, and despite trailing 2-0 early in this one, the team showed great spirit to come back and also win 7-5. Despite narrowly losing the third game against Kildare, Wicklow still topped the group and secured a quarter-final bout against Meath.
Meath, who had won last years All-Ireland Shield, were going to be no pushovers and they pushed Wicklow close and going into the final game the scores were tied at 6-6. Liam Burke showed great nerve to win the final game 2-1 and seal a great 7-6 win for Wicklow.
Wicklow went into the semi-final against Kilkenny full of confidence but unfortunately it was a game too far but the lads lost very little in defeat and proved that they can mix it with the very best.
Speaking after the tournament, County Selector, John Byrne said he was very proud of the performance on the day. “That was a great performance, we showed great team spirit and we couldn’t have asked for much more.”
The Wicklow team showed great belief all day and they threw some very good darts to match and they will now go into next months inter-counties with the belief that they can give the competition a good go.
Wicklow Team: John Quinn, Martin Fortune, David Corcoran, Peter White, John White, Damien Douglas, Paddy Byrne, Liam Burke, Shane Byrne, Jimmy Quinn, Martin Byrne, John Edwards, Michael Lott, Don Healy, Paul Dunleavy, John Quinn and Mick O’Reilly.
