Both of Castlebars Teams (u12 and u16, St. Patricks National school teams ) qualified for the Connaught finals to be held in Sligo IT on the 10th of April. They won the Mayo community chess in Newport. This is the first time in some time that we have entered teams in the community games. If not this year then next year these teams will put Castlebar back on the community games Chess map.
The teams are as follows:
u12 -- Jamie Viegas, Killian O'Malley, Ciaran Horkan, Stephen Martin, Daniel Plaster, Christian Cresham, and Daniel Nyland.
u16 -- Mark Melnychuk, Darragh Dunleavy, Oisin Horkan, Paul Connolly, Cathal Abberton, Sean Fleming, and Andrew Bell.
News update. Castlebar won the Connaught Finals U12 and were runners up in the U16. A fantastic result for both teams. Congratulations. Both Teams reached the finals with easy wins in their respective semi finals. In the u12 Captain Jaime Viegas, Killian O'Malley and Christian Cresham had very easy wins in their first games against Leitrim and Roscommon. In the u16 Mark Melnychuk, Cathal Abberton, Oisin Horkan, Sean Fleming and Paul Connoly had very easy wins and ran out 5-0 winners in the semi final. Now Mayo Champions Castlebar were to face All-Ireland Champions Ballinasloe Galway in both finals. So it was Mayo versus Galway in the u12 and u16 chess finals. Our u16 sixteen squad were really up against it as all players were just 12 years of age and played a very experienced Ballinasloe team. The first two matches went to Galway but then Paul Connolly won on board three so 2-1 to Galway. Boards 4 and 5 were close matches but once again the Galway experience won out so Mayo went down 4-1. A great effort under the circumstances by our Mayo u16 boys.
However a different story emerged in the u12. We lost matches 1 and 2, our top players and it looked ominous. Then Ciaran Horkan won his game followed by Daniel Nyland emerging victorious, so 2-2 with one match remaining. A few hail Marys were said in the room next door by Stephen Martins mum and others!! And what a game it was, it ebbed and flowed like the tide on Bertra beach swinging Mayo's way then Galway looked to be getting back into it. But Stephen Martin stuck to his guns and won the day for Mayo. A truly remarkable achievement for their first time to reach the Connaught finals. Now its onto the All-Irelands in Athlone in May.
