St Benildus ended a 29-year wait for Branagan honours at the recent finals stage of the LCU Cups, while Dundalk and Dublin were also victorious.
A record 40 teams hit the starting lines in this year's three Cups - the Branagan Cup for Armstrong/Heidenfeld players, the Killane Shield for Ennis/O'Hanlon/BEA and Bodley players, and the William Brennan Cup for players under 1700. Groups of four saw 12 teams advance to the third staging of the finals event, with semi-finals and final/third-fourth place play-off for all sections being hosted by Elm Mount.
Elm Mount themselves had amazing success in the groups, with all four of their teams making it through to the finals stage, though unfortunately things fell down for them once they got onto home soil. Their A team lost a tight match against Dún Laoghaire 3½-2½ which came down to the final board - only three of the 12 matches played on the day was won by a score greater than 4-2 - while the Bs lost 4-2 to Dublin, setting up an A v B derby in the third-fourth place play-off. Both afternoon sessions in the Brennan ended in 3-3 draws - Elm Mount's As squeaked past their Bs to claim third place, while Dublin ousted reigning champions Dún Laoghaire to take the title for the first time since 2017.
Dublin were hit in the Killane by the loss of a player the night before the finals tournament, and scratching board 6 against a strong Dundalk side who had reached the final in the last two seasons meant they were always facing an uphill battle - they lost 3-2 over the board, although having lost on the top three boards, they would have lost even if they'd won board 6. Elm Mount reached the final with a resounding 4½-1½ win over unlikely semi-finalists Knights of Éanna B - they had already defeated the As in the group stage - but they weren't to deny Dundalk a second title in three years in the final, losing 4-2 overall. The bottom board was again a scene of drama, as Dundalk's player fell for a tactic in the opening to appear totally lost, only to recover equality and then go on to win - although as in the semi-finals, a Dundalk loss on 6 would still have seen them win on tie-break. In the third-fourth place play-off, Dublin overcame the lack of a board 6 to defeat Knights of Éanna B 4-2.
By contrast, the two semi-finals in the Branagan were one-sided affairs - St Benildus, defeated semi-finalists in three of the last four seasons, raced into a 5-0 lead against reigning champions Knights of Éanna, who were also short a player - St Benildus missed out on a whitewash in the last board, though did still manage to claim a draw by repetition in a lost rook and pawn ending a couple of pawns down. In the other semi, 2023 and 2024 winners Elm Mount's bad home event continued with a 4½-1½ drubbing to Malahide. The third-fourth place play-off was a bizarre match, with Knights of Éanna scratching board 6 and then finding out two other players had left for the day - this made the score 3 - -2 and ended the match as a contest before it started. Even more strangely, Knights of Éanna won the three matches that were played, but still ended up losing 3-1. The final was the only tight match in the Branagan, with the four titled players on the top boards taking draws off each other. St Benildus recovered a seemingly lost position on 6 to get doubled rooks onto the second rank and claim a draw by repetition, and then declined draws on boards 3 and 5 to turn both into wins, and take the trophy. Malahide in turn declined a draw on 4 and won, but when the dust settled, St Benildus had won the trophy for the first time since 1997 - only Rathmines have a longer period between trophy wins (1976 and 2010), though if Dundrum's wins are added to the St Benildus haul (the two clubs merged in the early 90s), then the club now has five title wins over a 49-year period.
