The club is looking at resurrecting the Senior Club Championships over the summer and is putting out a call for interested players.
The details of the tournament are open to change where the majority of players want, but at the moment, we’re looking at –
- Five-round open Swiss tournament. (We can put in an all-play-all top six or bottom six section if there’s big ratings gaps, but we’d hope to have enough players that an Open would be competitive for all players)
- Games on Wednesday 2nd, 16th and 30th July, and 13th and 27th August, all at 7:30pm with 1:45 hour time control for all moves. These dates avoid clashes with state exams, any World Cup games and the Glorney. Travelling byes are obviously available for holidays, etc.
- Entry fee of €10 for the first year to fund an engraved perpetual trophy. Entry included in club fees in future years
- Entry is restricted to paid-up St Benildus club members. Juniors (players still in school) may enter provided their May rating is above 1100. Exceptions to this ratings cap may only be made for –
- ……Players involved in the Ireland underage set-ups
- ……Players who have previously won the Junior Club Championship
- ……The top-rated junior under 1100 may be given a special invite if there is an odd number of entrants in the first round.
- Any adult member (i.e. who has left school) may enter.
- Note that the regular club night would not be open on match nights due to a lack of supervision.
- The tournament would be unrated (maybe the main discussion point!)
- Confirmation of the school being available on the nights in question is pending.
- The Frank Scott Shield – the Junior Club Championships – will run in September/October as per usual for all junior players
At the moment, the following players have indicated interest –
| Seed | Name | Rating |
| 1 | John Healy | 1869 |
| 2 | Ciarán Ruane | 1657 |
| 3 | Alex Byrne | 1599 |
| 4 | Brendan Cooney | 1590 |
| 5 | Kevin Burke | 1551 |
| 6 | Brendan Cuffe | 1499 |
| 7 | Ronan Sweeney | 1489 |
| 8 | Mihailo Manojlovic | 1485 |
| 9 | Odhrán McDonnell | 1456 |
| 10 | Ross Beatty | 1438 |
| 11 | Dylan Boland | 1421 |
| 12 | Eddie Gahan | 1410 |
| 13 | Kevin May | 1400 |
| 14 | Stephen Cunningham | 1328 |
| 15 | Anastasija Manojlovic | 1224 |
| 16 | Ger Healy | 1167 |
| 17 | Dan O’Brien | 1166 |
| 18 | Desmond Beatty | 1120 |
| 19 | Mark Dennehy | 1019 |
| 20 | Luke Hayden | 994 |
| 21 | Paddy Power | 796 |
| 22 | Des Carroll | Unr |
Note these are just expressions of interest! The players above aren’t formally confirmed or obliged to enter, but it’s an early indication of the potential strength of the tournament. If you want to add your name, post here or get in touch with myself or your team captain.
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I forgot to say, I polled the Bodley A on this. They seemed somewhat interested, but mostly thought they’d have competing holidays and other activities.
How come I had to approve your comment? Have you signed up with a new account?
Cheers anyway. Obviously the point of having games on every other Wednesday is that if you’re on, say, two-week holidays, you can still play and just take a one-round travelling bye.
technically id be out of school and id be up for it
Cool. Yeah, you can’t enter the Frank Scott Shield this year, and the point is that everyone in the club has a Club Championships to enter. Same goes for all the sixth years.
Ye I’d be interested but it may clash with too many peoples holidays. Perhaps have the opening rounds in May?
It’s an option alright; will consider it. May well clash with the cups is the main problem (the club had ten cup games in the second half of May last year!). Having a six-week break between rounds 1 and 2 wouldn’t be ideal, but I think there’s going to be a bit of a problem whichever way this works.
We’ll know the cup timetable before we finalise details for this, so we can cross that bridge when the fixtures are out. In the meantime, I’ll add you to the interested (no obligation at all!) list.