THIS is the first match report in what will be a great season in the Astley Bridge Darts League.

This week I visited the Lever Bridge pub in Darcy Leven for Perfect Finishers' Men's Section Five season opener against the Grey Mare; a Harwood pub recently taken over by Bolton Wanderers hero Super John McGinlay.

It was a nervy affair with two teams mixed with older and younger players but it was one of the more experienced players who showed his class on the night.

If you aren’t common with how the league is run, each team play five individual's games after a random draw pits them against their opponents for the night.

In Ladies Sections One and Two and Men's Sections Three, Four and Five it is a best of three, and in the Men's Section One and Two it is best of five legs, meaning a team can potentially win up to 15-0 or 25-0 dependant on the section in which they ply their trade.

The match began with Tony Berry and Lee Hartley in a game where both players struggled to reach top form after such a long break in between the seasons.

It ultimately came down to the double in each leg in which Berry hit in all three legs to give the Perfect Finishers a 3-0 lead.

It was soon about to get worse for the Grey Mare as Paul Berry, still reeling from impressively finishing third in last season’s merits, looked in the mood to go further than that this season hitting four scores over 95 and securing a 2-1 win against Simon Ratcliffe.

Ratcliffe was unlucky as he had hit three scores over 95 himself and threw some steady darts himself.

It was a speedy game with both players throwing some great darts but Berry was confident of hitting the finish and came out with a fine 2-1 win and put his team into a 5-1 lead.

Third up was Rob Webber who faced Matt Rimmer in a well-paced game.

Rimmer performed well to come from a leg down to win 2-1 with both players suffering from the pre-season gap.

It was a game that could of really gone either way and Rimmer showed composure when it mattered to get the first win for his team on the night and pull the score back to 6-3.

What followed was the game of the night. Rich Hamer and Matt Cooke both threw some great darts in a dramatic game which went all the way to the last double.

Hamer started off with some power scoring, hitting a treble in the first three scores before checking the leg out.

Cooke showed signs of getting into the game after a slow start and that led to a great two legs of darts.

Both players missed many darts at double before Cooke levelled the tie.

Hamer could of very easily won the game missed several darts in the last leg before Cooke stepped up with 92 left.

Cooke threw his first dart in bullseye and followed it up with a double 16 thinking that the tie was over before noticing he had miscounted and had double 5 left.

Hamer missed six more darts at double before Cooke won the tie hitting double two for a crucial leg to keep his team in the game.

So it meant the pressure was on John McGinlay – the son of the Wanderers legend Super John.

He had to win all three legs as the score was now 7-5 to secure the victory for his dad’s pub but the task wasn’t an easy one.

He came up against the experienced Joe Cunniff. who was on top of his game against the inexperienced McGinlay and quickly went 2-0 up before hitting the best leg of the night.

Cunniff secured the victory in 27 darts after hitting 125 and 140 back to back before finishing 20 with his last dart in hand.

It was a great 10-5 victory but Grey Mare will be left ruing the missed doubles in key games.

It was then time to nominate the teams' men of the match and they were awarded to Cunniff and Cooke.

Both players will be looking to build on good starts to the season and hoping to be pushing towards promotion come April.

Next week will be the first league competition with the men's pairs taking place at the Roundhouse on Monday.

I will be visiting the Doffcocker for Wednesday’s local derby against the Hope and Anchor.