Isle of Man Darts Organisation recently sent representative teams to Gandia in Spain for the 2022 Europe Cup, hosted by the World Darts Federation.

The event took place from last Wednesday until Saturday and is one of the most prestigious events in the amateur darts calendar.

The Europe Cup consists of team matches together with singles and pairs competitions, with each country earning points depending on how their players performed in each category.

The Isle of Man sent over strong teams, consisting of the top four players from the most recent IoMDO rankings - with a men’s team of Kevin Lane, Robbie Nelson, Mark Venables and Rob Corrin, plus a women’s team of Margaret Kelly, Nikki Bardsley, Janine Halsall and Rachel Robertson.

The tournament kicked off with the team event in which matches consisted of all four players playing the opposition players in rotation in a best of 17-leg game.

Both teams were handed tough group draws but put in some fantastic performances.

The men started well with wins over the Ukraine (9-4) and Estonia (9-5) to put them in the running for a top-two finish in their group and a place in the knockout round.

Unfortunately, they then came up against a very strong Netherlands team, losing 9-1, before fading late in defeats to the hosts Spain (9-5) and Germany (9-5).

The Manx women had never managed a win in the team event in several previous visits to the Europe Cup and that run looked like continuing after heavy defeats to Poland (9-2) and Wales (9-0).

But they then put that ghost to bed in some style with a resounding 9-1 victory against Austria, a victory that was inspired by a 126 finish from Bardsley in the opening leg.

There is no doubt this was the best result in the history of women’s darts in the island and defeat in the final match of the group to Iceland (9-2) did little to dampen spirits.

The pairs competitions proved tough for all the Manx players, with the pairings of Bardsley/Kelly, Halsall/Robertson and Corrin/Nelson all crashing out in last-leg deciders in the first round to teams from Romania, Estonia and Greece respectively.

The pairing of Lane/Venables started with an excellent 4-0 win against a team from Poland but then suffered last-leg heartache themselves in a defeat to Austria.

The singles again provided little joy for the women, who all lost in the first round after receiving tough draws.

Halsall lost 4-2 to Lotto Heinaharju of Finland, Kelly 4-1 against Henriette Honore of Denmark, Bardsley 4-0 to Chloe O’Brien of Scotland and Robertson 4-0 to Anca Zijlstra of Holland.

In the men’s singles, there were first-round victories for Venables 4-2 against Ulrich Meyn of Denmark, Lane who posted an 84.53 three-dart average in his 4-2 win against Juan Carlos Munoz of Gibraltar, and Nelson who triumphed 4-0 on the livestream against Jim Mayer of Luxembourg and had a 140 finish in the match.

In the second round Venables lost 4-1 to Dragutin Pecnjak of Croatia and Lane missed match darts in a 4-3 defeat to eventual runner-up Teemu Harju of Finland, but Nelson powered into the last-32 with a three-dart average of 80.61 in a 4-2 victory against Simon Bak of Denmark.

Unfortunately, the next round was a step too far for Nelson as he lost 4-0 to an inspired performance from Sebastien Bialecki of Poland, despite posting an 82.81 average.

The men’s team finished in 24th position in the overall points table (out of 41 teams), with the women finishing 34th out of 35. An excellent performance for one of the smallest nations in the competition.

Isle of Man Darts Organisation would like to thank the team managers John Halsall and Mike Jelski for their hard work during the event and of course the players themselves for representing the island so fantastically.

l The new IoMDO season starts this Friday when the new Super League gets underway at 7.30pm in the RAOB club in Ramsey.

The organisation’s calendar of events is available on the IoMDO website www.iomdarts.com

Anyone interested in sponsoring any of the events can contact the association via its Facebook page or by emailing [email protected]