A special note must be made regarding Thomas Keating (below) who is outright Schools Champion 2012 having won 6 out 6 games. Geoffrey Keating (below) came 3rd overall.

Irish Champion Thomas Keating and Geoffrey Keating 3rd Place Individual

Regarding Sean Ryan & Eoin Caffery this was their first time in the real ’Chess Cauldron’ and they aquitted themselves extremely well.

Our Team members were Geoffrey Keating, Thomas Keating, Sean Ryan and Eoin Caffery.

Geoffrey Keating, Thomas Keating, Eoin Caffrey and Sean Ryan

Congratulations to them all.

Listed below are the official results:

ChessZ Irish Champions Finals 2012-Apr-17
Team Standings
Place Name                             Score
1-2  ARDSCOIL RIS LIMERICK 15.5…..1st on Blitz play-off
CLONAKILTY CORK               15.5…..2nd on Blitz play-off
3   DEERPARK CBS CORK           15  …..3rd
4   DROGHEDA GRAMMAR      13
5   TULLA CLARE           11
6   BAILIEBORO CS CAVAN   10
7   KILLALOE CC CLARE     9
8   INDIVIDUAL            1

Individual standings
1st:  Thomas Keating-Irish ChessZ Secondary Schools Champion
2nd:  Herolind Sylejmani, on tie break
3rd:  Geoffrey Keating, on tie break

P.B.C. 3, Ard Scoil Ris 8.

Ardscoil Ris caused a shock in the semi final of the Avonmore SuperMilk Munster Schools Junior Cup semi final at Musgrave Park with a dramatic late try victory.

The Limerick school totally dominated the second half and came close to taking the lead on several occasions and just when it looked like a replay might be on the cards. Second row Kelvin Brown struck with a well taken try to earn his side a deserved victory.

Pres’ dominated the opening stages with the advantage of the wind. A fine back line movement nearly saw winger Conor Barrett in for a try, but he knocked on.

Pres’ took the lead with a long range penalty effort from David O’Sullivan after nine minutes but little was seen of Pres’ as an attacking force after this.

Ard Scoil began to impose their will on the game with Paul McNamara impressing in the center of the field and forwards Darragh Ryan, Brown and skipper Shane Fenton being in the thick of the exchanges and also put in some big tackles.

Both of the Limerick wingers Padraig DeBrun and Lloyd White came close to scoring and Ardscoil were back on level terms on twenty eight minutes when David O’Mahony kicked a penalty.

Ardscoil continued to dominate the tried to spread the ball wide at every opportunity. DeBrun was brought back for a foot in touch and prop Tom Walsh also made some telling runs.

O’Mahony was off target with two penalty efforts on thirty eight and forty minutes the first rebounding of the upright.
Pres’ were putting in some big tackles and it looked like they would live to fight another day when a great break by Brown saw him cut through the defence to score with two minutes remaining.

Despite six minutes of injury time Pres’ laid siege to the Ardscoil line and despite conceding numerous penalties there was to be no way back for the Mardyke College.

Scorers P.B.C.: David O’Sullivan  pen.
Ardscoil Ris: Kelvin Brown try, David O’Mahony pen

Ardscoil Ris: Liam Brock; Padraig De Brun, Paul McNamara, Jack O’Donnell, Lloyd White,; David O’Mahony, Hugh Bourke; Pierce Lyons, Killian Bracken, Tom Walsh; Darragh Ryan Kelvin Brown; Jerry McCabe, Jack Sexton, Shane Fenton.

Replacements: Dylan McMahon, Kevin Danagher, Conor Quigley, Barra O’Byrne, Andrew Leydon, Robbie Graham, Diarmuid Scannell, Conor Fitzgerald.

Kyle impressively won the Intermediate Boys race from Ryan Sharkey (Methodist College, Belfast) and Conall Kirk (Sullivan’s Upper).

This is fantastic news for Kyle who now has a cross country double following his fantastic win in the Club event at the Curragh in December. Kyle will now captain the Irish Schools Team in Scotland on Masrch 31st. We are enormously proud of his huge achievements and wish him well in March.