Malta Darts Association

Noel Gauci, Secretary General

The Malta Darts Association was founded in 1962. Among the founder members were Mr. Benny Pace who was President until the early 90's and Mr. Louis Florian secretary till 1994. Darts in Malta was introduced by English servicemen playing friendly games in pubs all over the island. Some time later a National league was organised which included mostly English players combined with local players.

The game grew rapidly especially considering that it is not expensive to play darts. A player needs a set of darts, shaft and flight. The dartboard is found hanging at a pub and anyone can play free of charge. In the early 70's the Malta Darts Association had over 70 club members with over 1000 players. This considering Malta's population was recorded by the World Darts Federation as the number one country with the highest number of players.

The Malta Darts Association nowadays organises the National 8-a-side league, 4-a-side league and 5-a-side Knock Out. On individual basis the association organises the Malta Singles, Doubles, Youths and Ladies Championship. Together with a number of club organised tournaments on Sundays or Public Holidays.

The association organises each November the Malta International Open for which over sixty foreign players together with about 120 local players compete both in men's and ladies' events.

Every year a team of four players compete at the Mediterranean Cup where Malta has won all the gold medals possible except for the Men's Singles. This year's edition will be held in France. The team is composed of Noel Gauci (Manager), Alfred Desira, Vince Busuttil, Paul Sammut and Gordon Stanmore. Malta hosted the edition in 2004 while in 1990 organised the European Cup.

During previous international editions one can not overlook winning the overall Championship trophy at the Mediterranean Cup held in Cyprus in 2003. At individual events one remembers Godwin Cesareo beating Raymond Barnaveld (Holland) - World Seed No.1, Vince Busuttil reaching the last eight from among 320 competitors in Denmark and the classic encounters between Charles Ghiller/Vince Busuttil against John Lowe/ Eric Bristow (England) - World Seed No 1 & 2 respectively.  Presently the Malta Darts Association has 25 club members and over 320 players.

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