The first knock out cup of the A League season, the Allied Hotels Cup, took place last Monday night, with an excellent entry of ten teams taking part.

The Untouchables and Legion both won their first round matches 3-1 to meet each other in the top quarter final. With the score locked at 2-2 the match was decided by the nominated player with the Legion’s Ivan Leslie overcoming Michael Bain to put his team through to the semis.

The other quarter finals saw the Golf Club beat Wanderers B 3-1 and in the bottom half of the draw Wanderers beat A League newbies Sanday 3-1 to set up a semi final against Untouchables A after they defeated Quoyburray B 3-0.

The first semi-final was a re-run of last year’s final and unfortunately for the Golf Club boys it was the same result with the Legion easing to a comfortable 3-0 victory. The other semi between Wanderers and Untouchables A was a much closer affair with the Wanderers winning the team game to make the score 2-2 before Wanderers’ Brian Moar defeated Untouchables skipper Roy Foubister in the play-off leg to send his team into the final.

On to the final, and with the Legion team leading 2-1 after the singles, Derek Firth, Ivan Leslie and Paul Foubister just had too much firepower for the Wanderers team of Martin Peace, Robert Gatt and Brian Moar in the team game to give them an overall 3-1 victory and a successful defence of the Allied Hotels Cup.

There were 180’s for Michael Bain, Bruce Moar and Ivan Leslie with Michael Bain also having a 110 checkout. Robert Gatt had a very good 128 checkout but top checkout of the night and a very good marker for the rest of the season came from Sanday’s new signing Alan Gray with an excellent 153.

Six teams entered the St. Ola Cup on Tuesday night, namely Shapinsay, RBLM, Sands, Likely Lads, Murray's and the Shore 2. 

Shapinsay exited the cup first with a 3 - 0 defeat at the hands of RBLM shortly followed by the Likely Lads who went down narrowly to the Sands after the match went to 2 - 2, and was decided by the Sands nominated player winning the match. 

The first semi-final was contested between the Murray's and the Shore with the Murray's proving to strong with a convincing 3 -1 win. However, this was not as merciless as a second 3 - 0 victory of the evening for RBLM over the boys from the Sands.

 

On to the final which I don't think went quite to plan for some of the players, as Derek Ward and Keith Bain took the Murray's into a 2 - 0 lead having defeated RBLM's Ray Butcher and Neil Drever respectfully. Although Keith had double trouble in the first leg, Derek and Keith both scored heavily and found the doubles to win 2 - 1 a piece. 

Then it was the turn of Greg Harold and Peter Mathieson to take on Brian Murray and Roy Griffith's and try and take it home for the Murray's. However, Brian and Roy both proved to be too strong, each winning 2 - 0. 

The cup was then to be decided by the nominated match between Keith Bain from the Murray's and Brian Murray of RBLM, with the way both players had played throughout the evening this had the makings of a great match. 

Keith won the bull but in the first leg couldn't seem to find the form from earlier matches and soon saw Brian stretching out a convincing lead. Keith then pulled together two good throws back to back to put Brian under a little pressure but Brain soon closed the leg with a good, but possibly unplanned, double top double ten finish. 

The second leg was closer fought with both players throwing solid darts but Brian again managed to stretch out a short lead. Keith again put in a great three darts just at the right time to find him back at the board and faced with a dart for double top to take the the match into a final leg. Unfortunately for Keith the dart landed just outside the double, following which he could only watch as Brian closed off the match and the evening with a 2 - 0 victory and a 3 - 2 win for RBLM who lift the first B League cup of the season.