THEY prefer to blame the smoking ban more than the unlucky shirts but, whatever the reason, the Yeomen darts team from Barnstaple were not themselves last season.

For a squad which had been Devon County Superleague champions once with a 100% winning record and runners-up twice in the previous five seasons, a relegation dogfight was something of an embarrassment.

But they held on to their status and regrouped for a new campaign, which began on Saturday.

And, away to newly-promoted South Molton Stags, at the Town Arms, they overcame a disturbing start, when captain Julian Stainer surprisingly lost the opening match, to thrash their hosts 8-1.

Stainer said: "I'm very disappointed at my own performance but, team wise, it was fantastic."

The pivotal head to head was Ian Knight's clinical 3-0 victory over Andy Jackson in the fourth contest.

After new signings Clint Gregory and John Imrie had steered Yeomen into a 2-1 lead, Jackson was expected to put Stags back on even terms, but his defeat was the precursor to a landslide.

As the teams warmed up, Stags captain Shaun Carter had said: "He's probably in the top three or four in Devon the way he is playing."

As one of three Devon selectors, Knight knew what he was up against in Jackson.

"He's county A, I'm county B, and I just beat him 3-0, so I've got a lot of bragging rights," said a jubilant Knight.

Finishing all three legs by hitting the required double first time, Knight showed Jackson no mercy, but do not expect him to pick himself instead of the Stags man for the county.

"He's a quality player, he just had an off night," said Knight, who has been playing for Devon for 15 years.

"I've never been out of the side," said Knight. "I've been A team/B team, A team/B team. I'm what they call a yo-yo player, up-down, up-down." A yo-yo Yeoman no less.

As a binman by trade, Knight knew what to do with the team shirts the Yeomen played in last season. "They're in the bin," he said. And he did not have to think too hard to find the word to describe their form each time the players wore them. It was, well ... "rubbish".

"For one reason or another we struggled playing in them, then, three games from the end, when we were in trouble, we said nobody should play in the shirt and we won two out of three," he said.

Long-serving Russell Jenkins, the only player remaining from the original side formed 21 years ago, said it was not so much the shirts that had affected their results as the smoking ban which had been introduced in pubs in 2007.

"When a game was on we would have four or five players going outside for a cigarette and we were losing our support," said Jenkins.

Stags gained promotion last season as first division champions, meaning that North Devon sides make up half of the eight-team premier division.

Reigning champions Bideford Royals, going for a third successive title, and FILO Beer Boyz, also Bideford based, are the other two. Meanwhile, Yeomen have moved home, from the Rolle Quay Inn to the Borough Arms.

Stags must have thought this was their night when Andy Burnett beat Stainer 3-2 in a tense opening match.

Burnett thought he had blown it when, 2-0 up, he missed 11 throws at a winning double in the third leg to let Stainer in by hitting a double four.

"Then he pulled it back to 2-2 and I thought, 'Here we go, 3-2 to him'," said a relieved Burnett after taking the deciding leg on a double top.

It was a triumph for equanimity against raw emotion. While Stainer repeatedly voiced his frustration when his darts misfired, Burnett said not a word throughout.

Burnett also plays rugby and football for South Molton but, at 41, he is conscious of a shift in his personal sporting landscape.

Once he was better at rugby and football but now, despite playing darts since he was 15, he is throwing better than ever.

"My football is going down, my rugby is halfway and my darts is on the up," said Burnett.

A delivery driver by occupation, he delivered what turned out to be Stags' only victory.

In the next two matches, Gregory beat Alan Gifford 3-1 and Imrie, a member of Bideford's championship winning team last year, defeated Carter 3-2.

Knight's whitewash victory was followed by another as Gavin Passmore beat Cedric Quigley 3-0.

Jenkins guaranteed Yeomen's victory with a 3-1 win over Barry Hutchings which took the team score to 5-1.

And the Yeomen victories kept coming as Kevin Winter beat John Dawson 3-2, John Lakeman triumphed 3-0 over Kevin Vickery and Paul Groves defeated Ian Stoneman 3-0.

The last two wins rubbed salt into the Stags' wounds as Lakeman, though appearing for the visitors, lives in South Molton and Groves is a former Stags player.

Missing at least two key players, Stags captain Carter said: "We'll get stronger, we'll stay up."

But it may not get any easier in the short term. Stags next Superleague match is away to champions Bideford Royals.