Vinny comes up against a right tosser in Foley's

AGAINST THE ODDS:It all comes down to the bold Vinny in the fourth staging of the ‘Modern Pubtathlon’, writes RODDY L'ESTRANGE

DURING the warm-up, Vinny Fitzpatrick had been light-fingered, accurate and sure of touch. His five 50 cent coins had landed exactly where he pitched them and had bounced just the right amount forward.

Two of them finished plum to the whitewashed wall; two others were within six inches while the fifth was a gimme. If his nerve held it would take some tosser to trump him. “You’re good to go,” said Macker, as he bent down to collect the coins. “By my reckoning, you’ll be on in about 15 minutes.”

For a Sunday evening in midsummer, the venerable tavern on the Clontarf Road was jammers for the fourth staging of the “Modern Pubtathlon”. The event was always held in Olympic year and involved five pubs, five contestants and five disciplines – speed chess, dominoes, rings, darts and pitch and toss.

The winning prize was worth €500 to the successful team, in addition to complementary creamy pints. To ensure there was no skullduggery, all contestants had to be regulars of good standing in their pub.

Vinny felt Foley’s team was the right blend of youth, experience and ability. Two-Mile Boris was the perfect lead-off man as he was a chess grandmaster, who claimed to have beaten Viktor Korchnoi in a challenge match in Leningrad as a teenager.

For speed chess, each player was given five minutes to make as many moves as possible, and Two-Mile was nigh invincible.

Brennie was entrusted with getting “a result” in the dominoes; Peter “Lofty” Peake, a medium-fast opening bowler for Clontarf, was a fascinating choice for the rings, while Big Dave, always solid on the oche once he stayed sober, was in the darts hot seat. That left Vinny as last man standing in the pitch and toss.

Wearing a smart black polo shirt, courtesy of Nipper Foley, Vinny had a quick butcher’s hook at how things were going on the chess tables. Two-Mile had won two games and was on his way to winning a third – he was a certainty to pick up five points.

At the domino table, Brennie cut a forlorn figure. “He can’t buy a double,” whispered Fran, who was doing his best to keep Brennie’s spirits up.

In contrast, Nipper’s gamble with Lofty was paying off in the rings where the task was to hit 31 points exactly with five rings. Lofty’s over-arm style was unsettling his opponents and he’d won two of the first three legs already. Big Dave was holding his own with his arrows and would probably finish no worse than third. By Vinny’s calculation, Foley’s were on course for maximum points from two of the five disciplines – he was going to be needed after all.

Out in the beer garden, the tossers were flexing fingers ahead of battle. Vinny recognised his nemesis Lugs O’Leary, representing The Dollymount Inn. While Lugs was a nasty piece of work, he had the touch of an elephant and Vinny was sure he’d have his measure. The favourite was Mickey McGraw, known as “Quick Draw”, from The Schooner, who had such a feel that he was known to close his eyes before tossing.

The other two candidates were unknown to Vinny; there was Johnner, an aul fellah from Shingles, and Simon, a straw-haired gangly youth, from Larry’s on the Howth Road.