A GROUP of local darts players have demonstrated their strength in the region after their team, Bushrangers, claimed the Hamilton and District Darts Association championship.

Hosted at the Cally Hotel last week, the team earned a come-from-behind victory against Chuckers to earn the trophy.

The side consisted of six players including Ron Hallinan, Leesa Humphries, Brendan Galloway, Fred Roberts, Bruce Shepherd and Mark Bunting.

It was an impressive lift from the team who struggled early in their doubles contests before coming home strong in their singles match ups.

“We were four-one down early and lost all of our doubles, then the first singles game as well,” Hallinan said.

“But we came good and won our next four after that – it’s a bit of a habit of ours to do that, we’re a bit like Collingwood in the AFL.”

With their opposition needing just one more game to win, Bushrangers found another level off the back of wins from Bruce Shepherd who pegged 48 and 36 in his singles and Galloway pegged some 32s to get their side back in the mix.

From there, the team held strong to earn the win.

The victory is not the first for this group of local players, with the core who have been together for about 10 years before welcoming some new faces in the last five years.

“Some of us have been playing together for 10 years or so, it’s great and gets me out of the house for two nights of the week,” Hallinan said.

“We were originally based out of a pub in Branxholme but when COVID and everything happened we had to relocate to Condah, but we’ve all stayed together mostly.

“We’re from a bit all over the place and I think sometimes people think we’re going to go down pretty easy, but we’ve shown we can come and perform.”

With four of the players hailing from Portland, one from Byaduk and one from Hamilton Hallinan said they’ve also travelled to compete as a group.

“Some of us go away and compete elsewhere in the likes of Maryborough and Colac, we’ve got some really handy players around,” Hallinan said.

“We love going away and often we’re playing big teams from Melbourne and if we have a good day, we’re able to beat those teams.”

Local competition

Portland’s local competition will start back up on Monday night at the South Portland Hall with any interested players welcome to attend.

The competition kicks off at 7pm.

With an ebb flow of participation in the sport across the past few decades club president Hallinan said they’re keen to build on numbers.

“So far we’ve got about 15 players involved and we usually go for five sides of three players in those cases,” he said.

“I started playing in the 80s in Portland and there was over 100 players but things have gradually dwindled.

“They go in cycles though so hopefully we can pick up some numbers again.”