Ulster had three players representing Ireland at the recent Six Nations Championships held in Dublin with Amanda Mogey (Glengormley), Claire Nelson (Belfast) and Ashley Givan (Dungannon) all competing in the team and singles events. The forth player included in the ladies squad was Fiona Dennett who is based in Cheshire. Both Amanda and Claire have played this event before so knew how demanding the task was in front of them. This was Ashley’s first senior cap for Ireland, a remarkable achievement for someone who is still only 14 years of age. The girls played magnificently all weekend to claim the bronze medal beating Scotland, Guernsey and Isle of Man in the process, with the girls losing close matches to strong teams from Wales and England. The men’s team finished 4th beating both Guernsey and Isle of Man however succumbed to strong teams from England, Wales and Scotland.
On Sunday the Individual events started, and the three girls from Ulster were joined by fellow Ulster player Ashley Robinson who was playing in the singles event only. Star performer of the Irish team was Amanda Mogey who won a bronze medal narrowly missing out on a place in the women’s singles final losing in a closely fought 4 set match against Hannah Hicks from England. Claire Nelson and Ashley Givan both excelled reaching the quarter final stage with Claire unlucky to meet her inform team mate Amanda Mogey at this stage with Amanda narrowly winning in a fifth set thriller. However Claire enjoyed a good win against Gillian Edwards (Scotland) in the group stages. Ashley Givan lost to Hannah Hicks at the quarter final stage, however had a tremendous win against the Scottish number 1 lady Rebecca Russell in the last 16.
Ashley Robinson performed well despite losing in his first round group however had an extremely difficult task facing players considerably older than himself with much greater experience. Playing players of this calibre is great experience for Ashley and can only make him stronger as a player.