A pub darts team from The Avenue in Durham scored a bull’s eye by winning a national darts competition, run by pub company Punch Taverns.
The winning team battled it out against 32 teams from across the country at the Punch Darts Classic at the iconic Winter Gardens in Blackpool.
Darts teams from over a quarter of Punch pubs competed in weekly games against a nearby Punch pub across a six month period until they reached the regional finals, with the top teams from each region going through to the national final.
The team of eight, who won the competition in 2011, walked away with £3,000 plus trophies and a special ‘money can’t buy prize’ – the chance to play against a professional darts player at the PDC World Match-Play Championship, one of the biggest events in the darts calendar.
The total prize fund for the day was £10,000 and runners up also received a range of cash prizes. Every team walked away with at least £100 on the day for reaching the National Final stage.
The Avenue team captain, Paddy Lenagh, said: “It’s great for the team to regain the title. I’m really proud, the team are very passionate about the sport and they deserve the win.
“Darts is hugely popular at the pub and we have a lot of support. We have been playing together for five seasons now and they are a great set of lads who are getting better every year.
“We love taking part in the Punch Darts Classic as it’s the best darts competition around. We really like taking part and it’s great to see how the competition evolves and the standards are raised year on year.”
In its 10th year running, the darts competition took place over the whole weekend with a singles competition on Sunday 27th October with a separate cash prize fund totalling £2,000.
180 players who registered in the team finals took part and Ricky Evans, who plays at the Phoenix in Corby walked away with the first prize of £700.
Punch’s Category Manager Stephen Martin is pleased with the competition’s success: “This weekend marks the 10th year anniversary of the Punch Darts Classic. The popularity of this competition has grown considerably in the last nine years and we have gone from a few hundred pubs to over 1,100 pub teams playing in the national final.
“The competition is a big business driver for our pubs as pub events, like darts nights, are a great way to drive footfall into pubs on the quieter week nights. By holding these competitions it has generated over 7,000 transaction nights in pubs. They create a real sense of competition and community – as seen from the support given to The Avenue.
“We are always looking for ways to help our pubs build their business and as Punch is one of the largest pub operators in the UK, we are one of the few companies who can deliver competitions on this scale.
“We’ve seen year on year growth in the amount of pubs eager to participate in the darts competitions, making them the biggest pub darts competitions in the world.
“I would like to thank the event sponsors Guinness, Budweiser, Carlsberg, John Smiths and Winmau and I look forward to the 2014 competitions.”
Registration is now taking place at www.punchdartsclassic.co.uk or on Facebook by searching ‘Punch Darts Classic and @punchdarts on Twitter.