With the first round of fixtures underway and some pretty tasty draws it will be interesting to see if last season’s winners the Avoca can go on and make it a double in the Delta Cabs Pierce Jordan Cup.

The first match saw the Sliabh Dubh going up against the Sloans in the only match in the preliminary round.

The Sliabh Dubh dominated this match beating the Sloans comfortably on a 5-0 score line with wins coming from Joe McCoubrey Jnr, who beat Ciaran ‘the Jackpot’ Matthews, Peter Matthews who just got the better of Joe Dempsey, last season’s Delta Cabs Individuals champion Seamy O’Brien cruised past Dee Hamilton, Paul Hanna threw well to beat Steven Caughey with Paul Hanna hitting scores of 100 and 90 - well played. The last match saw Mr Colm Clarke go down with Joe McCoubrey Snr making the high fives for the Sliabh Dubh.

So with the preliminary round over it was down to business as the first round kicked off on board one.

Caulfields and the Sliabh Dubh went head-to-head and on Board two Avoca took on their derby rivals Avoca Star.

Starting with Caulfields v the Sliabh Dubh, big Micky Martin took on Paul Hanna and Micky came out on top to make it 1-0 to Caulfields, winning in 22 darts. John Moore luckily managed to beat Danny Boyle, Big Seamy O’Brien threw well to beat Gerard Boyle,  and Peter Matthews made it 3-1 beating an unlucky Patrick McConville.

But Caulfields pulled it back to 3-3 with wins  from Seamy Roberts, who is throwing some solid darts of late and Stevie Dee Jnr claimed his first win of the season beating Tony Parker in a cracking leg of darts.

Stevie hit scores of 125, 100 and 95 and Tony hit 100 and 140.

So locked at 3-3 it was Davy Parker who got the better of Manual Tully and Patrick O'Neill levelled the score at 4-4, getting the better of Joe McCoubrey Snr.

Going into the decider Joe McCoubrey Jnr took on Hugh McMullan and it pains me to write this but it was Joe McCoubrey who pulled out all the stops to win the game for the Sliabh Dubh 5-4. Well played to the Sliabh Dubh.

Board Two saw the two Avoca teams squaring off against each other with Billy Davidson and Big Kevin O'Neill kicking the match off.

Kevin got the ball rolling for Avoca Star beating Billy Davidson and Darren Bolton levelled the score at 1-1 beating Paddy Magee in 22 darts.

Avoca Star raced into a 3-1 lead with wins coming from Tom Kelly over young Sean Moran and Paul Morgan took out Gerard McClenaghan.

Big Geordie Bolton pulled one back beating Kieran ‘Chick’ Robinson but that was all Avoca got as the Avoca Star went on to claim the next two legs to win the match 5-2 and the wins came from Paul Goodman, who took out a 111 finish against Tony Dempster, and Joe Miller winning his game against Marty ‘Soupy’ Campbell.

Board one saw the Green Hut fall to the Spartans on a 5-2 score line with the only winners for the Green Hut came through young Fionntain Carson, who beat Joe Slavin, and the living legend himself Mr Bobby McStravick beating Kieran McKeaveney.

The Spartans claimed the match with wins coming from Jim Kerr against Gerry Rooney, Gary Murphy against Dylan O'Hara, and Dino Duffy against  Marty McDaid.

John Glennon lost to the 6ft 6 giant in Charlie Curley and Kieran Healy won the match by beating the magician on the 171s, Henry Carson.

The shock of the round came on board two as the Orient Bar managed to beat the mighty TLTA on a tight 5-4 score line.

Michael Holmes got the ball rolling by beating Paul Smyth but the TLTA men claimed the next three games with wins coming Marty Tougher, who got the better of Jamesy Dempsey, Gerard Holmes against new Orient man Joe Mooney and Joe Flannery, who took out Martin Parker.

But the Orient Bar pulled out all the stops by winning the next three games to make it 4-3 with wins coming from Dinny Holmes against Liam McMenamin, Paul McMenamin lost to Martin Taggart and my good friend Caelach Nesbitt beat Sambo Ramsey.

Jim Smyth pulled one back again to level the match at 4-4 by beating Martin Carson.

Going into the last game with scores locked at 4-4 and a nervy atmosphere up stepped Geordie Quinn who used all his years of experience to edge past Kevin ‘Butch’ Mallon to win the match 5-4 for the Orient Bar and upset the men from TLTA, who will want to forget this result quickly.

All the teams that remain in the cup could you all make sure that you are there in time for draws. About 8.30pm would be ideal. Cheers, Stevie Dee.