Stunning success for Offaly darts duo as Rosney seals Korea place

Two of Offaly’s top darts stars recently enjoyed a stunning weekend of success.

Offaly darts captain Stephen Rosney has ended the Irish National Darts Organisation’s ranking season on a high by finishing as Ireland’s number one player.

It means Rosney will captain the four-man Ireland team that will compete at the WDF World Cup in South Korea in September.

Rosney secured his spot on the plane to Korea by winning the INDO Irish Singles in the Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe on April 12, to add to the Irish Masters title he won last year.

He was also a beaten finalist in the INDO Irish Classic on April 11.

Rosney said he was “over the moon” to finish as Ireland’s number one.

Rosney said: “I’m really chuffed, you can have good weekends in darts but this one for me has been particularly brilliant.

“To make two finals in the first two days, I’d have taken that before I came down here.

“At the start of the year my goal was just to make the Ireland team for the World Cup, but as the season was going well for me I knew coming into this weekend I had the chance to be number one and I’ve done it.

“When I first started playing darts 11 years ago, I never would have thought I’d be number one in the country.”

It was also a brilliant weekend for Rosney’s fellow Offaly darts player Ronan McDonagh.

McDonagh made it to the semi-finals of the INDO Irish Singles, just hours after winning the latest INDO Development Tour event.

It comes just a week after he beat Rosney in the final of the ADC Ireland Regional qualifier for the Modus Super Series.

McDonagh said: “I’m very happy with the way I’ve thrown this weekend and my averages have always been there or thereabouts.

“I beat Dylan Dowling of Galway in a good final, he’s a good friend of mine so it was good to get the win over him.”

Meanwhile, Rosney said the success for both he and McDonagh shows that darts is going from strength to strength in Offaly.

The Offaly darts team recently made it as far as the semi-finals of the INDO Inter Counties championships, before bowing out to eventual winners Donegal.

Rosney said: “Darts is very strong in Offaly now and we have a lot of good players. It’s just unfortunate that in the last two years we’ve come up against an unbelievable Donegal team, but we are not that far off them.”

*Article and photos courtesy of www.dartsinireland.net