THE Place family from Blackburn are the treble tops at darts.

Brothers Darren and Dave have been joined in the Lancashire squad by Darren's 16-year-old daughter Danielle.

And her proud dad reckons she could turn out to be the best of the bunch.

"For her age, she is a cracking player," said Darren, skipper of the Blackburn town team.

"She has done brilliantly to get through to the Lancashire county side. And now her aim is to play for England."

Darren and Dave are both in the county men's squad. Danielle, who picked up the arrows after watching her dad and uncle in competition, has been selected for the Lancashire girls' team.

So far, the office junior from Hamilton Street, Mill Hill, has played three times for the Red Rose side, winning twice.

Next month she faces her biggest test yet when she appears in the British Teenage Open.

"It might be asking too much for her to win it at the first attempt," said Darren. "As she will be up against the best in the land.

"But it will give her an idea just how good she really is when she has to get up there on the stage in front of everyone.

"You never know how she will react. It's all right playing at pub and county level, but big events like this are just another world."

Darren, 38, and his 42-year-old brother Dave, are two of the region's top darters and have contested the Blackburn Premier League Darts final for the past two years - with Dave winning both times.

Darren got his first county call-up in 2000, while his older brother followed in 2003. Both play Super League darts with the Blackburn town team.

"Danielle just started coming to watch me in matches, following me around to competitions," explained Darren. "She soon got into it and started practising herself.

"She entered a couple of knockouts and won them and then she had trials with Lancashire and got through.

"The problem is that at her age - she's only just turned 16 and she isn't really old enough to go into pubs and clubs.

"She is incredibly keen. She comes home from work and gets changed and goes straight on the board.

"They say practice makes perfect and it is certainly the case with darts. And she is always practising!

"She isn't old enough to play Super League yet at 16. But at the moment there are quite a lot of youth tournaments on the calendar and she is entering as many of those as she can."

Despite her success to date, Danielle is still waiting for her first competitive 180.

"She has had plenty of chances with her first two arrows in the treble twenty, but so far it hasn't come," said dad.

"She has had plenty of 140s, but the 180 will come and once it does the floodgates will open.

"That's how it was with me - getting your first is the hardest bit."

l Last weekend, Darren scooped the £100 top prize after defeating Robert Richwood 4-1 in the final of the Memorial Trophy at Colne.