Munster League Div 2 2015

Tychoo

I just thought that I'd move the debate on Div 2 matters to its own tread.
Just to recap. There are only 5 teams in this years league Dungarvan, Tralee, Ennis C, St Micheals and Mallow.
There is no Shannon or Waterford this year and Adare signed up for a B team but it appears they have pulled out. first round was scheduled for last Saturday the 6th but was canceled at very late.

Tychoo

Just to update results from last weekend.

Round 1 Results

Ennis C 0 - 0 Dungarvan
St. Michaels 4.0 -1.0 Knights of St. James
Bye 0 - 0 Tralee

Round 2 Results

Dungarvan 0 - 0 Tralee
Knights of St. James 0 - 0 Bye
Ennis C 3.0 - 2.0 St. Michaels


Knights of St James is a new one on me.

cdeb

Seems to be a new enough club based in Mallow

Always good to see new clubs.

I presume 0-0 is just result not in yet? (There has been at least one genuine 0-0 in Leinster league history!

Tychoo

Indeed, pity Shannon and Waterford did not put forward teams.


Anyone know the state of chess in Tipperary?

RQ_ennis_chess

Great to hear that there is a new club in Mallow. Hopefully Shannon and Waterford are just taking a break for a year and will be back next year.
The only chess club in Tipperary that I ever heard of was Thurles but I don't think there has been an active club there for many years now. Didn't they used to hold a congress in the 80s? There were some chessplayers around Clonmel too but I dont know if there was ever an active club there.

Tychoo

Rounds 3 and 4 next weekend. South Court Hotel in Limerick. first game starts at 12 noon, looking forward to it.

reunion

Tychoo wrote: »

I just thought that I'd move the debate on Div 2 matters to its own tread.
Just to recap. There are only 5 teams in this years league Dungarvan, Tralee, Ennis C, St Micheals and Mallow.
There is no Shannon or Waterford this year and Adare signed up for a B team but it appears they have pulled out. first round was scheduled for last Saturday the 6th but was canceled at very late.

We could create a secondary school/university team? It could be made up of the best secondary school/university students? (so like a mix of UL, UCC, LIT, CIT students)

brilliantboy

reunion wrote: »

We could create a secondary school/university team? It could be made up of the best secondary school/university students? (so like a mix of UL, UCC, LIT, CIT students)

Might make travel a bit complicated for those players.
Good idea nonetheless, and as far as I know there's nothing stopping anyone who wants to set up a team.
I would have thought the college clubs would be full of keen chess players. Is it just a public relations failure on behalf of the ICU that we don't see many competing on the regular tournament circuit?

cdeb

Problem is that by the time players get to college, they've usually got good links with a club already. So there's often not much need to move from a club you're comfortable with anyway.

reunion

brilliantboy wrote: »

Might make travel a bit complicated for those players.
Good idea nonetheless, and as far as I know there's nothing stopping anyone who wants to set up a team.
I would have thought the college clubs would be full of keen chess players. Is it just a public relations failure on behalf of the ICU that we don't see many competing on the regular tournament circuit?

They are full of keen chess players and tbh they are ignored by the ICU. There are erasmus (study abroad) students that come over and are here for 6 months. So for 1 college team it might be a bit difficult to generate the 5 players required consistantly. Also as people are A. students and B. about 19, access to private transportation is typically limited.

I know there isn't a college league, so this might help...

brilliantboy

cdeb wrote: »

Problem is that by the time players get to college, they've usually got good links with a club already. So there's often not much need to move from a club you're comfortable with anyway.

I was more referring to the casual players whose first encounter with a chess club is when they get to college. Not all of us were plucked straight from the crib and molded in the junior chess machine

Although Trinity for example doesn't have any problem attracting the type of player you mentioned. Participation in the Leinster leagues probably goes a long way toward helping with that.

cdeb

Problem with players who first encounter chess in college is that that tends to lead to a very transient club, which fades away until someone else comes along to resurrect it for a couple of years - after which, it dies again. UCD is an example. Griffith College too.

Trinity have a few Erasmus students I think. They get some of the better teams not just because they have a team in the Leinster Leagues, but because they play in the Armstrong. How many of the players in that team would join the club tomorrow if they only had an O'Hanlon team? Or similarly, how many players in UCD might play for a UCD club, but not if it started in Div 7? And it's easier than ever now to find your local club, even if you do get a bit of an interest in college.

If Trinity folded in a few years' time - players moving on, etc - I wonder how long it would be until it started up again? I'm not sure who's on the committee there. College lecturers being involved helps (Fergus Gaines was involved at UCD, for example) - it adds stability to the club.

mikhail

cdeb wrote: »

If Trinity folded in a few years' time - players moving on, etc - I wonder how long it would be until it started up again? I'm not sure who's on the committee there. College lecturers being involved helps (Fergus Gaines was involved at UCD, for example) - it adds stability to the club.

That's the real issue. Most clubs are run primarily on at most a handful of people's organisational efforts; smaller clubs are likely to depend on one critical person. It's hard to replace that guy reliably on a four year cycle.

That said, I agree broadly that the ICU doesn't seem focussed enough on recruitment and retention of players. Partly that's down to numbers - they have a certain administrative overhead to deal with first - but then I think that's partly down to volunteers being turned off by those filibustered marathon AGMs.

reunion

mikhail wrote: »

That's the real issue. Most clubs are run primarily on at most a handful of people's organisational efforts; smaller clubs are likely to depend on one critical person. It's hard to replace that guy reliably on a four year cycle.

That said, I agree broadly that the ICU doesn't seem focussed enough on recruitment and retention of players. Partly that's down to numbers - they have a certain administrative overhead to deal with first - but then I think that's partly down to volunteers being turned off by those filibustered marathon AGMs.

I'd say it's down to more than just the ICU. In the past, there was a Irish University Chess Association (IUCA) and an IUCA rep on the ICU committee, however with a change in how Studentsport do things (merging 2 previous National Student bodies) Chess is no longer something they facilitate internationally (because chess isn't a sport but they are responsible for it from their international affiliate). As a result IUCA's relevance and input disappeared, meaning no IUCA rep on the ICU and university club's relying on individuals to generate tournaments to compete in and coaching and keeping interest.

The ICU are good at getting Juniors (well some people are) but typically parents of Juniors get involved and improve the facilities for Juniors.

I remember seeing once, that around university time (20-30) is when most ICU members leave, and it isn't until 30-35 that some come back again. I'd love to see even just university tournament run once a year to at least give some university chess clubs a purpose...

RQ_ennis_chess

One important match result from yesterday Ennis C 1-4 Tralee. A good win for Tralee and one which probably makes them favourites to win Division 2 this season.

Tychoo

Tralee were also playing Mallow Saturday. The result was a 5-0 win for Tralee.

Dungravan and St Michael's I think played out a draw. No result form Dungarvan Mallow.

Tychoo

I see the results page for div2 have still not been updated on the MCU website.
Why is it taking so long?

RQ_ennis_chess

Tychoo wrote: »

I see the results page for div2 have still not been updated on the MCU website.
Why is it taking so long?

At a guess I would say that some captains haven't logged in to update their panels which means the results cant be entered. Can't see what else it would be

Tychoo

League table finally updated. Looking good for Tralee. Sorry can't post like to the Munster site.

Tychoo

Big result yesterday in Div 2 of MCU. St Michaels 3.5 Tralee 1.5. Saints had wins on boards 1 and 2 draws on 3.4 and 5.
As yet no results from the afternoon games.

brilliantboy

Am I right in saying this puts St.Michaels into the lead, with one more match played than Tralee?

What matches are left to play?

Tychoo

St Michaels were due to play Mallow in the afternoon game so assuming they won that game that would give them a 1.5 point lead after 5 games. Tralee have only played 3 games, they have to play dungravan twice and returns against the rest.

Tychoo

One other result from saturday the Ennis C team went down to a heavy defeat to Dungarvan 4.5 -0.5

Tychoo

Some results from yesterday Tralee have a 5-0 win over Mallow and a 3.5-1.5 win over Dungarvan.

Tychoo

One back game was played Sunday between Dungarvan and Tralee in Mallow. Tralee won the fixture 3-2 with wins on borads 2,3,4.

Tychoo

Final round happened last week with Tralee winning div 2 as they did two years ago but failed to field a team for div 1 the following season. One wonders will it happen this time again?