Inaugural Sammy Walls Cup a huge hit with local darters

A tournament organised in memory of former owner of The Derg Arms and darts enthusiast Sammy Walls is to become an annual event following the success of the competition held in the Castlederg premises at the weekend..

Mr Walls passed away in November 2019 following illness and over 40 players turned out for Saturday’s tournament which culminated in Stevie Baxter defeating cousin Allyn to become the first ever winner of the Sammy Walls Memorial Darts Cup.

Baxter, one of the chief organisers, earlier topped the A section with Martin McLaughlin emerging victorious from section B.

The standard of darts was of the highest order and another of the organisers Gary McCreery confirmed that those behind the tournament were already planning for bigger and better next year.

“Sammy loved his darts and he would have sat all night watching us play,” said Gary.

“He wasn’t afraid to tell you when you played bad either. He would have loved Saturday’s tournament had he been alive to see it and it was great to see so many of his family in attendance.

“We had planned to run the tournament at a earlier date but we couldn’t because of the pandemic.

“But we are more than happy how things went at the weekend, it was well supported and we’ll definitely be aiming to go bigger next year.”

Mr McCreery thanked everyone who had helped in anyway, in particular all those businesses who had supported the event and Colin Maxwell, Gillian and Karen Baxter who had sold tickets and organised a draw on the day.

“On behalf of Sammy’s A and B teams we would like to thank everyone for their support. It was greatly appreciated.”

Monies raised will be donated to charity at a later date.