Irvinestown's Denise Cassidy created darts history when she became the first Northern Ireland woman to win a major ranking tournament by capturing the Europe Cup in Oslo, Norway, on Saturday.

In taking the gold medal in the women's singles, and a bronze in the pairs with Antrim's Grace Crane, Cassidy was the major factor in powering Northern Ireland into silver medal position in the team event, their highest finish at the Europe Cup.

Cassidy, housewife and mother of three, turned in a brilliant all-round performance in taking the women's singles gold. She cruised through the first two rounds with a 4.1 win over Gaynor Williams (Wales) and then 4.2 against 1992 champion Meike De Booer (Holland).

The big test came in the semi-final when she came head-to-head with world number one Trina Gulliver (England). In a tremendous game, Cassidy went into a 3.1 lead but then missed crucial doubles to let Gulliver back in to level at 3.3. In the deciding seventh leg Gulliver missed a double 16 finish to let Cassidy, on 124, in to finish brilliantly with single 20, treble 18 and a bullseye.

In the Saturday morning final, Cassidy's opponent was experienced Mandy Solomons of England. In front of a large crowd the Northern Ireland player kept her nerve to race into a 3-0 lead before Solomons chipped in to take the fourth leg. In the next leg it was all over with Cassidy clinically checking out on 97, treble 19 double tops to collect Europe gold.

Earlier in the championships Cassidy, along with Grace Crane (Antrim) had reached the semi-finals of the pairs only to be beaten by holders, Solomons and Gulliver 4-1.