Irish Tug of War

The Sean Kilbride memorial competition was hosted yesterday by the Mountain View club in Lordship, Co. Louth.

Mountain View, winners of the Sean Kilbride memorial cup

The clubs who competed were Binnian View, Carndonagh, Clonmany, Cockhill, Country Club, Gortletteragh, Mountain View, St. Pats & Rockies. Mountain View were very strong in the 580kg competition as they qualified for the final without really breaking sweat. There they faced Country Club from Co. Tyrone. The Tyrone men put up a good fight in the final but Mountain View were far superior as they went on to win the Sean Kilbride memorial cup in impressive style. Carndonagh defeated near neighbors, Cockhill, in straight ends to win the bronze medal.

Clonmany A, winners of the 640kg competition

St. Pats pulled very strongly in the 640kg event as they finished top of the round-robin without loosing a single end. However, a number of cracks began to appear in their team and they ended up loosing the semi final in a three ended thriller against a resilient Clonmany A team. Cockhill defeated Mountain View in the second semi final to set up an all Donegal final. The final was a very entertaining contest and went to a deciding end but it was the Clonmany team who picked up the victory as Cockhill were disqualified for sitting. Mountain View defeated St. Pats to win the bronze medal.

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With next months World Championship drawing nearer, a preparation tournament took place yesterday in Clonmany, Co. Donegal and was well supported by teams from North and South of the border. The clubs who competed were Carndonagh, Clonmany, Cockhill, Country Club, Mountain View, St. Pats, Richhill & Rockies.

Mountain View, winners of the senior 600kg

8 teams competed in a high standard 600kg competition. Mountain View, the national champions at this weight were very strong and topped the round robin without loosing a single end. They were joined in the semi final by Carndonagh, Clonmany B & Cockhill. Mountain View continued their dominance by defeating Cockhill to qualify for the final as Clonmany B defeated neighbours Cardonagh in the other semi final. The final was a very entertaining contest as the Louth team had to work hard to win the first end. Clonmany B who got off to a shaky start in this competition really upped their game in the second end as cracks began to develop in the Mountain View team. However, the Louth team just did enough to get the rope over the line to win the gold medal. Cockhill defeated Carndonagh in a three ended contest to take the bronze medal.

St. Pats, winners of the senior 680kg

6 teams took part in the 680kg event as St. Pats, the reigning national champions at this weight looked very impressive topping the round robin with maximum points. St. Pats, who also hail from Co. Louth defeated Clonmany A in the semi final to qualify for the final. Clonmany B defeated Cockhill in the other semi to qualify for their second final of the day. The large crowd in attendance were treated to another entertaining final as Clonmany B cheered on by their home support won a close second end to bring the contest into a third and deciding pull. However, it was St. Pats who dropped in hard in the deciding end and pushed out the Clonmany men in impressive style to win the gold medal. Clonmany A defeated Cockhill to win the bronze medal. Youth 2000 would like to thank all of the teams who attended and supported the event and all those who helped out in any way.

Click here to see photos from the event (Note: there are 2 pages of photos).

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