Members of Oxford’s newest youth club were quick to hit the bullseye just two months after it was formed.

Youngsters at Marston walked off with first prize in the under-14 county darts championship.

The victory was all the more remarkable because some of the players were so small they couldn’t reach the top of the board to pull the darts out.

The success delighted club members who gathered to see Oxford United footballer Gary Barnett present the team with their medals in 1983.

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The triumph came as special relief to one member of the team, 12-year-old Simon Jackson, of Park Way, Old Marston.

Simon had been practising at home when his own darts broke, so he borrowed his dad’s finest tungsten-tipped flights for his big match.

The darts stuck in the board well enough when his father Keith Jackson played for the Red Lion pub team at Old Marston.

However, they were not up to son Simon’s standards, so he sharpened them. As any darts player will know, sharpening tungsten darts causes problems. A penitent Simon said: “Dad was happy I won, but if I hadn’t won, I would have got a clip round the ear.”

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His colleagues in the winning team were captain Andrew Smith, Mark Willett and Andrew Reid. Mark Robson, chairman of the new youth club, said: “There was nothing much for the kids to do round here except hang around the streets so we got together and opened the club one night a week and now we have a membership of about 160.”

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