Michael Kennedy: season report for Armstrong B team

Summing up a successful season for Rathmines B in the Armstrong:

The main goal of the Rathmines B Armstrong team at the start of the season was to avoid relegation. Mission accomplished. It was pretty clear that we were home and dry following our comprehensive victory over rivals Phibsboro B in round 9.

The secondary objective was to achieve good individual performances across the team. This was largely mission accomplished too, as most of the guys performed higher than their ratings. Well done lads! Peter Cafolla was our top performer. He scored a healthy 4.5/8 with a performance 2150+. On the next rating list he’ll be back well over 2000 again. Jack was our other star player. It was great to see him back in good form: he was our top scorer with 6/11, losing only one game. He’ll surely gain 40-odd points on the next list. David Goggins and John Burns both weighed in with a credible 5/11 against average opposition 1900-2000. I reckon both will gain 30-40 points on the next list. Lukasz scored 2/4 and Mindaugas pulled in 2/3, both against higher rated opposition. Both will gain points. Though I finished on -2 with only 4.5/11, I expect I’ll still pick up a few points.

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of captaining a top-flight team for the first time. It wasn’t all plain sailing, though. Amazingly, we didn’t field the same 8 players more than once in the whole season! It wasn’t easy pulling together a full team for each round. Luckily, our subs were always willing to step in (or out) at a moment’s notice. I’d like to thank John Crowley, John Maher, Peter Bishop, Pat McEvoy and Dave O’Connell for this. A key to our survival was the return of Lukasz Goralski and the arrival of Mindaugas Janusaitis mid-season. Without them, I’m sure we’d have been relegated. All in all, there are plenty of positives to take forward into next season.

Heidenfeld, Last round results

Rathmines vs. Malahide A, Heidenfeld, Round 11, 09 March 2008.
1 Philip Doyle 1709 0.5 – 0.5 Frank McMahon 2004
2 John Crowley 1682 0.5 – 0.5 Paul Reilly 1756
3 Peter Lynch 1630 0 – 1 Paul Taaffe 1712
4 Pat McEvoy 1566 0.5 – 0.5 Gerry Smith 1688
5 John Maher 1443 0.5 – 0.5 Kevin McGrane 1678
6 Pat Freer 1393 0.5 – 0.5 Gerard Buckley 1654
7 Paul Mogerley 1341 0 – 1 Vincent Bissett 1639
8 Ed Cunningham 991 1 – 0 Carsten Meussig 1575    
Result: 3.5 – 4.5