This Saturday the Scottish finals of the Mixed Doubles will be held at Bannockburn Social Club. Representing Fife at the finals will be Margaret Hatton & John Walker, and Frances Wood & Jock Martin.

Last Saturday Fife’s Inter County darts team played host to the county team from East Stirling at the CISWO.

Before the day’s darts began, Fife were top in all four divisions, and by the end of play nothing had changed after a great day for Fife as they were unbeaten during the day.

The women’s B kicked the day off and came out of the tie with a 2-2 draw. Kirsty Burns (13.01) and Agnes Gallagher (11.45) were the two winners for the Fife team.

The men’s B team were next up and they won the first 5 sets before the visitors took the last one for a 5-1 victory. The winning players for Fife were Stevie Fairfull (21.23), Kevin O’Hagan (18.82), Lee Thomson (21.72), Colin McClements (22.89) and Gordon Donnelly (19.27). East Stirling’s consolation win came from Hugh Allison.

Next on stage were the women’s A team, but before the match commenced, there were a couple of awards to be made. Brenda Hunter received the first certificate for having the highest average in Scotland for her win against Perthshire last month. The other certificate was presented to Danny Cunningham for his game, also against Perthshire last month, and also for achieving the highest average in Scotland.

Back to the darts and Brenda Hunter won the first set with 15.27. The visitors took the next three sets following wins from Marlene Hannon (15.03), Colleen Hunt (23.12) and Christine Jenkins (18.68) which put them 3-1 ahead. Margaret Hatton was on fifth for Fife and her set went the distance before she won the deciding leg with 15.80 to bring Fife back into the game at 3-2. Last up for Fife was Frances Wood, and she won her tie 3-1 with 14.40 to give Fife a share of the points for a creditable 3-3 draw.

The final match of th4e day was the men’s A, and Fife got off to a flier following 3-2 wins from Colin Hepplewhite (20.62) and Mark Thomson (26.46). East Stirling then levelled the match at 2-2 with wins from John Donaldson and John Robertson, then the next two sets were shared with Fife’s Rab Shaw winning 3-1 (22.60), only to see Wullie Hamilton putting the match all square at three sets each. Danny Cunningham (29.31) and Darren Moir (27.83) then put Fife 5-3 ahead, before James McKenna won the ninth set for the visiting side to put the score at 5-4 in Fife’s favour. Billy Pryde was next up for Fife and he went on to win his set 3-1 with 23.20 to guarantee Fife would get at least a share of the points. Neil Brunton was up against Gary Robson in the penultimate set and played some excellent darts winning 3-0 in 15, 17, and 15 darts to give Fife that much needed point and put the match out of East Stirling’s reach with the score standing at 7-4. The last set was won by Andy Murray for the visitors with a three nil win for a 26.84 average which made the final score 7-5 to Fife.

There were 8 maximums scored during the day, all of which came in the men’s A match. Fife players to score 180’s were Nelson Brown, Billy Pryde (2), and Neil Brunton, while John Donaldson, John Robertson, John Beggs and Andy Murray all hit one each for East Stirling.

The highest checkouts on the day were; 160 – Danny Cunningham (Fife), 138 – Darren Moir (Fife), 128 – John Donaldson (East Stirling), 111 – Christine Jenkins (East Stirling), 108 – Alex Lister (East Stirling), 107 – Darren Moir (Fife), and 104 – Neil Brunton (Fife).

Player of the match awards went to; Women’s B – Kirsty Burns (Fife), Men’s B – Hugh Allison (East Stirling), Women’s A – Colleen Hunt (East Stirling), and the Men’s A went to Neil Brunton (Fife) following his 31.98 average.

With Fife strengthening their lead in all four divisions, things are looking good for all teams, but we only have one game left, which is away to Central next month. All our nearest teams have two matches, as Fife has the bye in March. So, we shall just have to wait and see what happens elsewhere, and await the outcome, but we must make sure we come away from our next match with maximum points if we are to become Scotland North champions.

Just another reminder that if anyone wishes to enter this year’s Scottish Open, the closing date for entries is Tuesday 31^st January. The competition takes place on the weekend of 17^th – 19^th February at the Normandy Hotel, Renfrew. Entry fee’s are £10 for the men’s singles and £7 for the women’s. Entry forms are available from league reps, or any member of the Fife committee.

Entry forms for this year’s Fife open are also available and players can either obtain a form from their league rep, a Fife committee member, or a copy can be downloaded from the Fife Darts web page. The competition takes place in the CISWO and goes ahead on 29^th – 30^th April this year. Entry fees are £7 for the men’s singles, and £5 for the women’s. There will be a doubles tournament on the Sunday also and entries for this are £6.00 and £5.oo for the men and women respectively. Prize money for the singles champion is up to £1200 in the men’s and £400 in the women’s, and there are BDO Grand Prix points available to those who reach the latter stages of the competition.