Northern Ireland Championships 2007

These Championships were a great success for Richhill Tug of War Club and the other teams involved as the overall standard of the competition has vastly improved and the competition was closer than in previous years. With this being the qualifiers for representation at the World Championships in Italy the overall quality was of a high standard as there was at least 4 teams pushing in every weight each night, with that rising to 6 teams on occasions. Richhill themselves had placed a B team in the 560kg, 600kg and 640kg on the opening night of the championships with the 560kg and 640kg continuing throughout the championships and the 560kg being the more successful of the two.

On with the weight categories.

This was contested on the opening two nights by 6 teams and with Richhill A team failing to lose an end it was the second place that was keenly contested. On the first night Richhill B team went through the night undefeated except to Richhill A with the most noticeable of pulls against Ballyheegan.

On the second night the same went again but this time an 8 man Glen’s team went out and gave Richhill B team a great pull with the B team just coming out on top of that encounter but with Ballyheegan next to come it proved even tougher than the previous week with Ballyheegan winning the first end. The second end however could have went either way with both teams knowing that this could decide who was going to come second, Ballyheegan win and they were left level on points for the last week or Richhill win and leave them a 3 point lead going into the last week. This showed in the end with both teams coming close to winning it but in the end the B team just pulled it out of the bag and took the second end to leave them with a 3 point advantage. However The Glens turned out and beat Ballyheegan in the next pull leaving the B team with a 6 point lead.

Then came the final week and with Ballyheegan deciding that putting a team out would do worse than good didn’t enter a team leaving Richhill A to take the Gold and Richhill B to take the Silver

The next weight class to be disputed was the 680kg category with this being the smallest weight category with Richhill, Ballyheegan, Finvoy, Country Club and The Glens competing. On the opening night Richhill continued how the 560kg left off by going out and winning all there ends with some tough pulls against all teams but fitness and experience seemed to prove the deciding factor. The same followed suit the next week except this time again the Glens pushed Richhill to the edge and was inches away from taking the first end only for Richhill to turn it and go out and win both ends.

Come the final week Richhill required one end to seal the Gold but that didn’t seem sufficient as again they went out and won all there pulls but with only three teams competing this time. This left them to take the Gold and Finvoy to go out and get the Silver medal with a few well known faces from the outdoor seen involved with them.
Then came the 600kg with Richhill placing two teams out this time with the B team being low on strength and experience they failed to win an end on the opening night and that was that team finished for the championships. However the A team faired differently with them going out and again failing to lose a single end with the most noticeable pulls coming against Ballyheegan and Country Club. Come the second night Richhill again went out and won all ends with Ballyheegan and Country Club again giving them the most resistance but the true contest was between these two teams for who would come second. This contest came down to the last week and with Richhill again failing to lose it was up to themselves and other teams. Country Club was behind and had no choice but to beat Ballyheegan 2 straight and hope someone else took an end off Ballyheegan. That’s what happened, as Finvoy won the first end between them and Ballyheegan leaving Country Club to win the Silver medal and Richhill to win the Gold.

The final weight of the Championships was the 640kg category and again this was a very successful event for the A team and the B team doing themselves justice as they were the weaker of the two teams. There were some very close ends between the clubs involved and the B team seemed to get the hardest of pulls and seemed to do ok considering the overall strength compared to the A team. This left Richhill to win the Championships and Ballyheegan taking second place.

In the end this turned out to be a very successful Championship for us as we repeated what we done last year and also had some younger pullers for the future involved in all of our teams.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 12:04 and is filed under Northern Ireland Championships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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