A report on the Irish Championship 1978 has been added to the tournament pages here.
The event returned to Galway, for the first time since 1965, and 23 players entered. In a well-contested championship in which many players were in contention, Alan Ludgate recorded an unbeaten 7/9 to finish clear first and clinch his third Irish championship, after 1975 (shared with Eamon Keogh) and 1977 (shared with Ray Devenney). Eugene Curtin finished second, ½ point behind, with six players sharing third place another point back.
It’s sometimes remarkable how much material from long-ago events survives in original scoresheets and other records. As of today, there are only two games from the entire event in the ICU games archive, but Alan Ludgate and John Gibson provided all of their games, and David McAlister provided six more of Tom Clarke’s games, for which many thanks. With these, and with one more from a newspaper report, we have 24 of the (approximately) 99 games. Even that is not all, as there appear to be at least 8 more, which have been promised once the present circumstances ease a bit.
The clipping above (from Alan Ludgate; original source unknown) shows Alan Ludgate’s critical round 1 game against Tom Clarke after Black’s 19th move. Beyond that are Jack Killane and Colm Barry.
There were several interesting games and crucial moments, which will form the subjects of the next few posts.