First ever draughts win for county
Wednesday, 5th June, 2013 11:16am
The Ashbourne draughts team, which took the gold medal at the Community Games national finals.
The Ashbourne Under 10 Draughts team did their county proud when they took home Meath’s first ever gold medal in the category during the national finals of the Community Games in Athlone.
The team was formed three years ago and had struggled to beat local team Duleek to progress outside the area. Team members include Tomas Cooney, Cianan Finn, Darragh Finn, Maire Gallagher, Scott Johnston, Aine Logan and Ciara O’Sullivan.
Team managers Harriet Thynne-Cooney and Brenda Logan upped the training this year and a board was out at every opportunity. Under the instruction of Brid Carr, the team went into intense training, meeting up to three times per week.
Brid hails from a strong draughts family from Carlow. Armed with the wealth of knowledge of years of training as a child and spurred on by the drive to beat her sisters’ and father’s teams, she soon had the team sacrificing pawns for multiple jumps, focusing on protecting the back line, creating bridges, and developing new vocabulary such as “touch move” and “fixing”.
The training paid off and a victory against Duleek was followed by victory against Broadsmill to become the Meath champions. The Lenisters quickly ensued and the team travelled around the province to win against the Longford and Westmeath teams.
The final match for the Leinster title became very personal as the team Brid was training was pitched against her sister’s team from Carlow. Carlow were multiple past National Champions and the win put the Ashbourne team firmly on the Draughts map.
The final challenge came last weekend when the four provinces met in Athlone for the semi-finals and finals. They were drawn against Monaghan representing Ulster and in a closely drawn challenge, became one up in the final game and thus winners.
The final was against Kerry ended in a draw after two games. Ashbourne held their nerve and won a decisive victory in the third to become the first Draughts team from Meath to win the cup.
- See more at: http://www.yourforum.ie/ashbourne/round ... LNDXJ.dpuf
