St Benildus take first ever NCC

St Benildus marked the 50th National Club Championships with our first ever win, and in doing so will travel to Albania for the European Club Cup in October as champions of Ireland.

Euro booklets available shortly

The club’s 2022 ECC booklet will be going to print shortly, so if any club member is interested in getting a copy, let me know! Price will depend on interest, but probably about €8 (+ P&P if relevant) as this year’s booklet looks like being the biggest yet, plus of course printing prices, like everything else, have gone up lately. It’ll hopefully be going to print later this month.

ECC 2022 review

A round-up of an ECC which, for us, was record-breaking in a record-breaking number of ways.   Plus, the return of the closing ceremony and associated tradition, a three-way tie in our ECC comparisons game, and our hand in four titles.

St Benildus 2½-3½ Zuid Limburg

A record-breaking ECC in many ways ended with deja vu all over again as for the third time in a row, we had 2½ points on the board with games still in play, but once again came out on the wrong side of a 3½-2½ scoreline.

Etelä-Vantaan 3½-2½ St Benildus

Once again, we went down 3½-2½ in the ECC after another decisive final game in which we had definite chances of a result, but ultimately lost. That we continue to almost double our expected score is little consolation in Austria this evening!

Cercle Dudelange 3½-2½ St Benildus

My book One Night in Dudelange is about a plucky Irish underdog side travelling to the German-speaking part of the world to take on a team from Dudelange in European competition – they take an early lead, hold on through a heroic, extended and almost impossible onslaught, and just about hang on for the win. The chess equivalent went the exact same way – except that we buckled at the end and conceded a 95th-minute winner…

St Benildus 2-4 Gonzaga

While we went down to defeat in a first-ever ECC match against our old rivals, our second-highest ECC ever win did at least help make it another good day at the office, and we’re still tracking at twice our expected score.

St Benildus 2½-3½ Dardania

Lara’s first ever ECC win and a farcically long draw from Kevin saw another excellent day at the office – half a point more than yesterday against a team of similar strength.

St Benildus 2-4 De Sprenger Echternach

A new kit and some inspired captaincy helped us to one of our best ever results at the ECC in the opening round in Austria – in terms of outperforming our rating, it was second only to the win over Modra, and we could have done even better.

St Benildus arrive in Austria

The St Benildus team has arrived in Austria all in one piece – just about! – for our sixth European Club Cup campaign.