Season starts

The season got off to a start last night, Thursday 16th September with the Rathmines A. vs Rathmines B fixture in the Armstrong. Both teams look new and fresh this year with the return of Sam Osbourne on board 1 for the A team (Sam has been a member of long standing, but has returned from playing with St Benildus recently), and new members DJ O’Donoghue and Tony Bermingham. And we have kept Tomasz Skrzypnik, who joined us at the tail end of last year. We welcome all these new players because it is probably the first season recently where we’ve added so many good players in one go, rather than losing them! Unfortunately, it looks like we will be missing John Delaney, our senior champion and ex-Irish champion, for the season. But our best wishes are with him and we hope to see him soon. In fact, do not forget, he will be giving a lesson for club members next Thursday 23rd (see below).

Here’s the scorecard for Armstrong Round 1 between the two teams:

Bd.	Rathmines A	ICU#	Rating	Result	Rathmines B	ICU#	Rating
1	Sam Osborne	6252	2071	1 – 0	Tomasz Skrzypnik	FIDE ID 1118234	2048
2	Peter Cafolla	159	2031	1 – 0	Mindaugas Janusaitis	12148	1846
3	Killian Delaney	5104	2016	1 – 0	Abul Kalam	16042	1827
4	Jack Killane (SUB.)	740	1813	1 – 0	John Aherne	9	1759
5	DJ O’Donoghue	5028	1867	1 – 0	Tony Bermingham	60	1772
6	Tony Scannell	1533	1822	1 – 0	David Goggins	497	1751
7	Michael Kennedy	3955	1821	0 – 1	John Burns	137	1736
8	Leon Fagan	406	1818	0.5 – 0.5	Ken Moore (SUB.)	16385	1604
				6.5 – 1.5

As can be seen, the top 6 boards were a white-wash for the A team.

The declared teams for A and B are:

	Rathmines A	ICU#	Rating
1	Sam Osborne	6252	2071
2	Peter Cafolla	159	2031
3	Killian Delaney	5104	2016
4	Darren McCabe	5722	1892
5	DJ O’Donoghue	5028	1867
6	Tony Scannell	1533	1822
7	Michael Kennedy	3955	1821
8	Leon Fagan	406	1818

	Rathmines B	ICU#	Rating
1	Tomasz Skrzypnik	FIDE ID 1118234	2048
2	Mindaugas Janusaitis	12148	1846
3	Abul Kalam	16042	1827
4	Lukasz Goralski	10298	1782
5	Tony Bermingham	60	1772
6	John Aherne	9	1759
7	David Goggins	497	1751
8	John Burns	137	1736

Next up is the Ennis A vs. B next Monday night, 20th. The Leinster Leagues have an excellent web site where you can consult the latest results and fixture list.