Hitting the bulls eye repeatedly in local darts leagues

WINTER is almost upon us. For some, those long, bleak nights may feel like the tightening of a noose, but for darts players around Galway city and county it signals the beginning of yet another adventure.

One of its most notable exponents locally is Padraic Coady, who for the past five years has captained Lafferty’s Bar to a record five-in-a-row of Galway City Darts League titles. In addition, he has also led his side to the Knockout Cup twice – 2009 and 2010 – while a number of Lafferty’s players – Paul Gannon (2009), Pat Lowry (2010) and John Lane (2011) – have also claimed victory in the singles competition for the last three years running.

To say these men are enthusiastic about the sport would be an understatement – no more so than Coady, who has been throwing darts since way back in 1978.

“Ryan’s of Laragh was the first place I threw a dart. I was about 17,” says the Ballyglunin native. “I threw for different places, though, before, eventually in the mid ‘80s, I went to the United States, to Boston.”

It was there that Coady really expanded on his game, taking part in such high profile events as the Minute Man Dart League (MMDL) and the Witch City Open, one of the most popular events for North American and international dart players in the ’80s and ’90s and which returned this year after a decade-long hiatus.

“That (Witch City Open) was held up in the North Shore and the top 20 world ranking players would go to that. It was a big event, with between 1,200 to 1,500 players competing over the weekend. So, we used to pop up there to get a crack at the big lads. On the first night you could pull any of them because it was an open draw.

“From there, I started playing with a team in the States and we won the Minute Man Dart League. We won that in 1999 and 2000. That would be the equivalent, in your group, of the All-Ireland. It took in all of New England.”

In 2001, Coady returned home and on the cajoling of his brother-in-law, Michael Hurney – who owned Grealish’s Bar at the time – he revisited the sport locally again. “We won the City League for his bar in 2004. He was also very interested in the darts, so he got a couple of lads in to play, such as the Crafty Cockney Eric Bristow. I got to play him and I got to beat him . . . with good darts,” adds Coady, with a note of pride.

“That raised my game. A couple of months later I played against Peter ‘One Dart’ Manley in Gort, in Sullivan’s Hotel, and I beat him as well the same day. So, I had a good year of it. That was in 2004. Michael finished up, though, in the pub after that.”

As a result, the father of two took some time out before returning to the sport in early 2007. He pulled together a group of lads who shared his love of the game and began throwing again under the sponsorship of Lafferty’s Bar. “We won the Galway City Darts League that year,” beams Coady. “We said we would stay on and defend the title the following year, and we have been doing that ever since.”

In the interim, he also managed the county’s darts team for two years and last year he took them to the quarter-finals. “On our way, we beat the All-Ireland champions, Cork. Donegal eventually beat us in the quarter-finals and they went on to win the All-Ireland. When we looked back, though, we had a good year because two weeks before that we beat Donegal in a challenge in Ennistymon in the West Coast Classic. So, we had a happy year of it.”

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.