Manx Teams Claim Second in International Tournament

The Isle of Man darts team came second to the Republic of Ireland in all three titles during a strong showing this past weekend.

This weekend saw the island host the 2024 edition of the Islands International, a three day darts tournament contested between the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey and the Republic of Ireland, held at the Empress Hotel.

Friday night saw an individual singles tournament taking place with Stephen Rosney of Ireland winning the men’s and Caroline Breen of Ireland winning the women’s, narrowly beating local darting queen Margaret Kelly, in the final.

The team event kicked off on Saturday with the Isle of Man Women making a winning start, beating Guernsey 5-2 and the Republic of Ireland Women beating Jersey 6-1. This was followed by same fixtures for the men and again the Isle of Man came out on top beating Guernsey 9-4 whilst the Republic of Ireland beat Jersey 10-3.

The final matches on Saturday saw the Isle of Man Women produce another fantastic display as they beat Jersey 4-3 with Janine Halsall securing the winning game for the island whilst the Republic of Irelands march continued with another 6-1 victory over Guernsey.

Sunday saw the Isle of Man men taking on Jersey and they rose to the vocal support at the Empress, running out 10-3 winners whilst the Republic of Ireland completed a demolition job of Guernsey wining 12-1.

Those results set up a grand stand finish for both Isle of Man teams as they went head to head with the Republic of Ireland for the titles.

The women got off to a great start when Nikki Bardsley produced some of her best darts to take the opening game, before Ireland won the next two with Caroline Breen and Ann Redmond. Margaret Kelly drew the island level with a 3-1 win to make it 2-2 but a very strong Ireland team wrapped up the next 3 games to take a 5-2 overall victory and secure the title.

In the men’s, Ireland started very strong winning the first 4 games, before Aaron Bradley got the Manx men on the board with an excellent victory over Niall Culleton. Ireland’s dominance continued however as they reeled off the next 5 games with some scintillating darts to secure the match and the overall title.

The Isle of Man weren’t done however and Paul Sertin nearly blew the roof off the Empress when he beat Dylan Dowling 3-1 and Kevin Lane made sure the crowd were treated to something special, winning an absolute thriller 3-2 against Andrew Gillespie. In the final game Ireland’s Stephen Rosney overcame the vocal home support to beat Willie Biggane 3-1, giving a final score of 10-3 to Ireland.

Those result secured both the men’s, women’s and overall titles for Ireland with the Isle of Man finishing second in all 3 competitions, a marked improvement from their 4th place finish Guernsey 12 months ago.

Next year’s event moves to Jersey and the island will be looking to go one better and bring home the title for the first time.