A NEW sports bar has completed a hat-trick for a fledgling Darwen leisure company.

Spitfire Sports Bar is the latest addition to the town's flourishing night scene.

Located above The Vault, it joins The Taps, in Railway Road, as the third hostelry under the tutelage of Darwen Bars and Leisure Ltd.

Pubs boss Gary Perkins incorporated the firm at the end of November.

The Spitfire venue also now plays host to Eddie's Pizza Oven on a permanent basis.

Darwen has had a longstanding link with the legendary aircraft since townsfolk funded their own Spitfire by subscription. It was handed over to the RAF in 1941.

Just yards from the bar, on The Green, stands the £175,000 memorial statue to the plane, crafted by apprentices at WEC.

The Vault was opened more than two years ago on the site of a former slaughterhouse, which had served more recently as a tiles outlet.

Elsewhere the run of dance music gigs promoted at the former Sky Bar, in Wellington Fold, under the banner of Project Darwen, has come to an end.