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Brian Collum Memorial Tournament

  • 10-03-2018 4:41pm
    #1
    cdeb
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 7,266 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Saw this on the ICU website - it looks like a remarkable tournament.

    480 primary school students from the midlands - specifically Longford, Westmeath, Roscommon and Leitrim - playing in a schools tournament yesterday. I think that's genuinely spectacular. It's about 30% bigger than Bunratty, for example.

    And yet between the four counties, they can boast one club (Longford) with one team in the Leinster leagues.

    I remember seeing other tournaments like this when promoting the Irish Juniors in 2016 - the Wexford schools finals had 230 players, for example. Yet Wexford has just two clubs (Gorey and Enniscorthy) with four teams between them.

    Is there other examples? There appears to be huge potential for the game here, and yet we seem not to be translating any of that into full membership. (And I don't mean to be seen as coming across harsh on the clubs mentioned here as obviously just running a club takes plenty of effort)

    What can be done to help this situation? Promotional material at the events? Is there someone in the 480 parents in the midlands who'd be interested in setting up a senior club to enter in the Leinster Leagues? Do they know where to start if so, or are there supports available?

    (Discuss... :) )


Comments

  • #2
    Retd.LoyolaCpt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 627 ✭✭✭Retd.LoyolaCpt


    Manorhamilton have up to 300 at their events. I counted 800 playing chess on one weekend in events around the country in the 4th weekend of January last year.

    Desmond would be able to tell you more about the plans/schemes/ideas at play to get so many to these events. I know one idea is to bring entire class groups rather than individuals from classes.

    The BCM is definitely the biggest - run by Pat McCarrick for a number of years very successfully.

    From an ICU perspective, there are some efforts to try and put a bit of structure in place in Connaught for an adult game with the Connaught leagues kicking off this year (hoping to have 8-10 teams) and the Connaught Festival in a few weeks - both run by Conor Barrett.


  • #3
    L1m1tless
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 2,166 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1m1tless


    Anyone playing the upcoming connacht tournament?


  • #4
    Pete Morriss
    Registered Users Posts: 213 ✭✭Pete Morriss


    Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »
    From an ICU perspective, there are some efforts to try and put a bit of structure in place in Connaught for an adult game with the Connaught leagues kicking off this year (hoping to have 8-10 teams) and the Connaught Festival in a few weeks - both run by Conor Barrett.

    Retd.LoyolaCpt seems unaware that one of the best weekenders in Ireland has been held in Connaught for the last 16 years - in Galway. Regrettably, the Galway Congress won't be held this year, but if the ICU had put one tenth of the effort and finances into supporting the Galway Congress that they are providing for this "Connaught Festival", then there certainly would have been another Galway Congress this spring, ensuring a top-class tournament for all in Connaught (and elsewhere in Ireland and internationally).


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