Thorpe Cup
May 1st 2015
St. Mary’s College Blackburn 1 – 5 Chanel College, Dublin

Chanel College became the first Irish school ever to win the Thorpe Cup on UK soil with an emphatic victory over St. Mary’s College last May. Since the competition's revival in 2011 St. Mary’s have been the stronger of the two schools, winning three of the previous four matches, including a hard fought win in Coolock last year.
This year the tide swung categorically in the Dublin school's favour and the Chanel lads went in two-nil at half-time after a superb twenty-five-yard strike from a Glen Brennan-Power and a typical poacher’s finish from Cian Byrne. The boys from Blackburn didn’t lie down though and spurred on by a good home support made up of staff, students, past pupils, parents and members of the MEA, they fought hard.
As is often the case when you’re chasing a game, as St. Mary’s were, you can leave yourself slightly exposed at the back and Chanel capitalised on this with three more goals in the second half from Gerard Keating, Ben Fowley and Gavin Kearney. St. Mary’s sneaked a consolation goal just at the death but it was all over by then.
Despite the score line the game was competitive from start to finish with neither school shying out of a hard tackle. It was played in great spirits and both managers were delighted with the efforts of their respective teams.
Chanel are the victors for now but St. Mary’s will be a different beast come next year when they try to win back the Thorpe Cup.

Philip Ardiff,

Chanel College