The Branagan, Killane and Willie Brennan Cup competitions have started.

Elm Mount got off to an excellent start in the Branagan, with a 3½-2½ win away to the Armstrong cup winners, Gonzaga, in the first match. The scores on each board were:-
Gavin Melaugh 0-1 Sam Collins
Shane Melaugh ½-½ Henry Li
Paul O’Neill 1-0 Killian Delaney
Terry Creighton 0-1 Gordon Freeman
Alex Goss 1-0 Eoghan Casey
Andrew Peters 1-0 Andy Keenan

Elm Mount will be putting forward a motion to the LCU agm that match points should be used for the group stages of the cup competitions (eg a team gets 1 point for winning a match and ½ point for drawing). The advantage are:-
- a team which wins all its matches will always qualify for the next round
- it reduces the impact of a club which is no longer in contention putting out a very weak team. When groups are small, this can have a big impact.

There was a good attendance at the AGM which was held on Monday 22nd May.

During the AGM, board prizes were presented to the top scorers on each team by  Fred Armstrong, the Club President.

Paul O’Neill was the top scorer on the Armstrong team with 8.5 points..

Fred Armstrong and Terry Creighton were joint top scorers on the Heidenfeld team, scoring 8 points each. Outgoing treasurer Gerry Barry presented their awards:-

On the O’Hanlon A team, both Alex Goss and Peter Scott scored 7/11:-

The top scorer on the O’Hanlon B team, Greg Coyle, was not present to pick up his prize.

The top scorers on the Bodley Cup team were Peter McGrath and Kevin Murray:-

The last round of the leagues took place in the ALSAA centre on Sunday 23rd April.

The Armstrong (Division 1) team finished in 4th place with 50.5 points from a possible 88. Paul O’Neill, pictured below, won a board prize with a score of 8.5/11.

The Heidenfeld (Division 2) team also finished in 4th place with a score of 50/88. The top scorers on the team were Fred Armstrong and Terry Creighton who each scored 8/11.

Elm Mount had two teams in the O’Hanlon Cup (Division 4). The A team finished in 4th place with a score of 34.5 out of 66. The top scorers on the A team were Alex Goss and Peter Scott with 7/11 each. There was a very close finish at the bottom of the table with 3 teams finishing within a point of each other but unfortunately the Elm Mount B team finished in 12th place with 25 points and were relegated. Greg Coyle was the top scorer on the B team with 6.5/11.

The Bodley Cup (Division 6) team finished in 10th place with 18 points out of a possible 50. The top scorers on this team were Peter McGrath and Kevin Murray who both scored 4 points.

All the league tables can be seen at here.

Congratulations to Terry Creighton who came joint first in the Gonzaga Championship on the weekend of Jan 22nd-24th.

The full crosstable is available here.

The 2016 Elm Mount Christmas blitz took place on the 19th December. There were 3 all-play-all sections organized with a time-handicap system. The winners had first choice from an array of chocolate, biscuit and wine prizes. Food was also supplied. Among the participants were David FItzsimons and Gavin Melaugh who won prizes at the Leinster Chess Union blitz held at Elm Mount a few days earlier.

After many time scrambles, the prizes were presented by Pat FItzsimons:-

Happy New Year!

The 2015/6 Player of the Year award was jointly awarded to Eugene McMorrow  and Gavin Melaugh.

Prizes were awarded for the 2016 Club Championships on Monday, 24th October. For the first time, a small cash prize was awarded to the 1st and 2nd place finishers.instead to the prizewinners. Players from other local clubs were also invited to compete.

For the first time, the Victor Murray Perpetual Cup was awarded to the winner of the top section. The first winner of the trophy was Ciaran Quinn. Below is a photo of Victor Murray presenting the trophy:-
 

The results of each section were:

• Section A: 1st Ciaran Quinn 7/10
• Section B:  1st Pat Fitzsimons 6½/8
• Section C: 1st Peter McGrath 6/8
• Section D: 1st Ciaran Bolger 5½/8 

Click on the Section names to see the ICU rating crosstables.

Below are more photos from the prizegiving:-

Some recent tournament victories by Elm Mount players …congratulations to

• Gerard MacElligott who finished joint first with 2 others in the Ulster Championship in Belfast on the 27th -29th August

• Gavin Melaugh and Shane Melaugh who finished joint first with 1 other in the City of Dublin Major tournament on the 9th-11th September.

The Club Championships have been progressing throughout the summer with keen competition in each section. The Club Championships page has been updated with the Section B cross-table.

Shane Melaugh and Alex Goss represented Ireland in the World Youth U16 Olympiad in Slovakia. You can read Alex’s report for the ICU here.

Joshua Redmond and Gavin Melaugh played in the winning Robinson Cup team against U14 teams from England, Scotland, Wales and France. The event was held in England in July.

Some pictures from the Club Championships …

The 2016 Club Championships have begun There will be 4 sections with Zygis Jakubauskas and Alex Goss as controllers and will include some players from other local clubs.

Results will be updated on the 2016 Club Championship page contains a cross-table for Section A at the moment but cross-tables for the other sections will be added shortly.