Irish Tug of War

The 14th GENSB Games tournament was held on Saturday last at Sursee Switzerland. An 18 strong Irish Youth development squad traveled to compete at the Games as has been the case in recent years. Two Eire Og teams competed as 54 teams entered the competition. Eire Og team 1 performed were well finishing second place in their group with 19 points qualifying for the top 16. In the last 16 they were unlucky to meet the famous Stans Oberdorf club from Switzerland. Stans won the first end but the Irish team fought back in great style to win the second end bringing the contest to a third and deciding end. The strong Swiss team went on to win the third end but Eire Og can be proud of their performance finishing 13th place overall. Eire Og team 2 found themselves in a very difficult group which included Sins who went on to win bronze. They pulled well finishing in 4th position with 7 points finishing 42nd overall. Well done to all the pullers who competed and put in a great effort to prepare and finance the trip. Thanks to all the coaches & guardians who accompanied the squad to Sursee.

Click here to see full results from the GENSB competition.

Click here to see photos from GENSB 2011. Thanks to Saoirse McLoughlin for sending on photos.

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Forty seven women from eleven clubs attended last Saturday’s Ladies Development session which was held in Corofin, Co. Galway. The clubs represented were, Boyneside, Ballinastoe, Ballinagh, Canavans, Cappoquin, Connemara, Donoughmore, Doyles Corner, Saddlers Inn, Thatch Bar & Renvyle.

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

 

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Irish clubs, Boyneside and Killoughey as well as Eire Og, the youth development squad traveled to Daventry last weekend where they flew the flag well with a number of fine performances.

There were five teams in the youth 560kg competition and Eire Og pulled very well winning the gold medal defeating Gloucester from England in a very exciting three ended final. Eire Og completed the double winning the gold medal in the youth 520kg without loosing a single end. Well done to the lads who have dominated in Daventry over the last few years. Five teams took part in the Ladies 560kg with Boyneside pulling well finishing in third place just behind the very experienced Sheen & Bedford ladies teams.  The result was the same in the ladies 520kg so well done to Boyneside ladies, the first Irish ladies team to compete abroad in a long number of years. The Boyneside team also won the silver medal in the mixed 4×4 600kg competition.

Click here to see photos from Daventry.

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We had a great turnout for yesterday’s ladies development /national team trial day. 27 women from five clubs attended, these were, Boyneside, Canavans, Connemara, Tatch Bar & Renvyle.

Following Eddie Fitzgerald’s coaching program, we spent approximately 30 minutes doing warm up exercises and tug of war specific drills before Eddie split us all into 3 teams to do side by side ropework skills. Amongst other skills, Eddie coached us on spacing, taking the strain and the drop along with checking hand positions on the rope. We spent some time also practising holding. Gerry Ferguson demonstrated the anchor person techniques. We were split up again to practise some live pulling which was a great success with a good balance of sportsmanship and good natured competitiveness breaking out amongst the women! We stopped for a break at lunchtime and were generously provided with a huge spread of soup and sandwiches by Gill’s pub. Following lunch we returned for some more live pulling with Eddie and work on the slats with Gerry. We wrapped up the session at 3:30pm. Report by Helen Coyne, Ladies Liaison Officer.

Click here to see more photos from the Development day held at Gill’s.

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The next youth / U23 development session will be held at the Edenderry Rugby grounds on Saturday evening the 9th of April at 7pm. Contact Gerry for more information of 087 2496915.

The 6-a-side youth league which was introduced last year will continue again this year. Click here to see details on the youth league. The top three teams in the league after the five rounds will be presented with gold, silver and bronze medals. The league will be run over five Sunday’s. To encourage youth participation, youth pullers from different clubs can combine to form a team for the league.  If any club has preferences to where the five rounds should be added into the fixtures please contactus@irishtugofwar.net

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The Coaching/Training Development Day held at the Harps Training Grounds in Aghern went very well with a good turnout of clubs & pullers, about 40 attended in total.

Gerry Ferguson went through all the training techniques with both Coaches and pullers on several combinations, and Bill Kehoe went through all the movements of moving backwards, holding, and team movement together, as well as going through the proper pulling and holding with the U-23 lads, overall it was a very rewarding day for all who attended. Dan McCarthy Irish Secretary, Denis Dunlea, & Donal McCarthy of Executive Committee also attended, and Michael Carroll President of the Munster Board also attended….by Pat Lee (Munster PRO)

Click here to see photos.

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Congratulations to the newly elected Ladies Liaison Officer, Ms. Helen Coyne from Co. Offaly.

Please find her contact details on the Contacts page. We would like to wish her every success in this role in this exciting time for the development of ladies Tug of War in Ireland. We would also like to congratulate the outgoing Liaison Officer, Ms. Tracy Smith for the excellent progress she oversaw during her term.

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The first combined ladies, youth & U23 development day which was held in Edenderry last Sunday was a big success. 24 ladies attended from four different clubs, Boyneside, Tatch Bar, Ballinagh and Canavans.

Eddie Fitzgerald took charge of a very productive session. The new Ladies Liaison Officer will be appointed at the AGM on Sunday and her first job will be to finalise the fixtures for the national championship league. Gerry Ferguson, Bill Kehoe & Brian Murray took charge of the youth and U23 session. Again, there was a good turnout and a very productive session took place. Details of the next development session will be available soon.

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The 13th GENSB games tournament was held yesterday in Raalte, a village in the eastern part of the Netherlands. The Irish development squad pulling under Eire Og were competing in their fifth tournament and performed well improving three places on last year’s ranking to 12th. This was by far their toughest test in their five year history. They were drawn in the toughest group with ten teams and four qualifing for the last 16. They had a gruelling contest with Streefkerk from the Netherlands with the judge centering the pull twice with the Dutch team eventually winning and topping the group with a maximum 27 points. Eire Og also qualified with a very hard earned 19 points. In the knockout phase their luck did not change as they were defeated two straight pulls by TTV Powerrangers from Belgium, who went on to win the silver medal. Mosnang from Switzerland won gold for the second year running.

Click here to see full results.

Click here to see photos from the GENSB tournament from the Dutch website.

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The ladies/youths national squad development sessions continued last Sunday at the home of the Boyneside club in Edenderry, Co. Offaly. The clubs represented were Ballinagh, Boyneside, Clan Lir,  Mountain View, Glenhill & Killoughey.

Three of the Irish squad selectors were in attendance. Although the ladies clubs turnout was a bit disapointing a very enjoyable and progressive day was had by all. LADIES CLUBS PLEASE NOTE: Ladies who wish to make the national panel for the international competitions will have to be present at all the development sessions.

Click here to see photos from the ladies/youths development session last Sunday.

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