Armstrong Cup 1980-81

Many congratulations to Dublin Chess Club, who won this season’s Armstrong Cup decisively (final table). This broke a run of seven consecutive wins by Gonzaga, itself an all-time record.

But even more notably, perhaps, it broke a 43-year famine for Dublin, which last won in the 1980-81 season.

The Chess League website records go back only as far as the 2003-04 season. However, we are fortunate to have essentially complete season results via John Gibson’s excellent records.

In 1980-81, twelve teams competed, but the competition was organised as a two-part series of six-team all-play-alls. The top three teams in the two sections qualified for another six-team all-play-all for the Armstrong Cup, while the other six teams played an all-play-all for relegation. (According to the Armstrong Cup page at David McAlister’s Irish Chess History website, this was the first second year this system was used; I think it lasted until the 1984-85 season.)

The initial sections were labelled A and B, but seem to have been intended to have the same strength. In section A, Kilkenny made history as the first team outside Dublin to play, having been promoted from the Heidenfeld. The defending champions U.C.D. were assigned to this section, but failed to field a team and did not make another appearance in the Armstrong until 1998-99. It was a strange end to a highly successful run, after UCD teams won in 1973, 1974, 1976, and 1977.

In the end, a single point covered the top four teams, with Raheny, Rathmines, and Phibsboro qualifying for the championship playoff and Sandymount and Kilkenny assigned to the relegation section.

In section B, Dublin finished comfortably first, but again the remaining places were hotly contested, with ½ point covering the next three places. Rathmines finished second, but Dundrum and Collegians tied for third and fourth places on 21. Dundrum qualified for the championship playoff, possibly by virtue of winning the individual match between the teams.

In the championship playoff, Dublin won by a comfortable margin in the end, for their first Armstrong since the 1970-71 season. However, Raheny actually led by a point (after accounting for all adjourned games) heading into the last round, and it was Dublin’s decisive 6-2 win against them that decided the title.

The decisive match was played in the Dublin clubrooms at 20 Lincoln Place, on Tuesday, March 3, 1981 (Irish Press, March 4, 1981 p. 14). The scorecard was:

In the relegation playoff, two teams were intended to be relegated, but since U.C.D. automatically took one, only one team faced the drop. In the end, Kilkenny were a long way adrift.

The winning Dublin team in board order was Robert Pye, John Murray, Pat Carton, J. J. Walsh, Paul Cassidy, Brian Canton, Bernard Palmer, and Ciarán O’Hare, with subs Brian Beckett, Brian McKenna, and Jonathan O’Connor.

Dublin team results

The results are arranged in John Gibson’s notebook in the style above. Results for other teams are as follows:

Collegians
Rathmines
Raheny
Dundrum
Portmarnock
Sandymount
Phibsboro
Rathfarnham
Dublin University
Kilkenny

The sole link with this year’s winning team is Jonathan O’Connor, who in a very long and distinguished career has never otherwise played on an Armstrong Cup-winning team. Congratulations to him and all this year’s team!

[Update, May 31, 2024: Brian McKenna’s first name was added, based on Colm Egan’s identification, via Gerry MacElligott, and the timeline for the new tournament structure was corrected based on a note by David McAlister. Many thanks to all for the information.]