Posts in category: Challengers

STIGA Challenger:  Carlow Report by Ray Cleare

A 69 strong field made up of eight clubs showed up to contest the recent challenger event held at the Presentation College Carlow. The action got underway at 10.00 am with 5 divisions offered in a very competitive field.

The tournament had at least 15 players playing in their first event which is exactly what the Challenger series was designed for – to encourage players of all levels to compete in a fun atmosphere. 

In Division 1 there were 7 entries and after the round robin 4 players emerged :Luke Dempsey, Kate Whelan, John Mansfield and Tadhg Downey.

After two very entertaining semi-finals Kate Whelan (Ballyroan) and Carlow’s own Luke Dempsey progressed.  The final was a hotly contested affair with Luke winning out 3-0 but it was a lot closer affair than the score line suggested.

The Division 2 final saw Justynne Fabian (Carlow) up against Jessie Hayes (Mounrath) with Justynne winning 3-1 in a very close affair.   Katie Hayes finished 3rd and Daniel Owcazarek

4th.

The Division 3 semi-finals were an all Carlow affair with Matthew Taylor, Sophie Kenny-Cleare, Ayo Oke and Bishal taking up the spots.

Matthew and Bishal progressed to the final with Matthew running out the eventual winner 3-0.

In Division 4 the semi’s were made up of Radek, Nathan Caufield, Benjamin Duffield and Ryan Fitzgerald.

Nathan Caufield (Sacred Heart, Finglas) and Radek (Carlow) got through to the final but Carlow were to be denied with Nathan winning 3-1 in a very close final.

In Division 5 the 4 players who progressed were Natasya Barry, Alan McWey,  Davin McEvoy and Liana Riba. The final saw Natasya (Athlone) up against Alan from (Ballyroan) with Natasya winning out 2-0 in a close final.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Tommy Fitzgerald for generously sponsoring the prizes,  Presentation College for providing a great venue and to all the parents and coaches who helped out on the day.

Over 100 players took part in the latest round of the Stiga Challenger Series, on 21 January in UCD Belfield.  Belfield proved an excellent venue for the event, with plenty of table space and spectator seating, as well as the Café overlooking the event area, the only complaint being the broken TV resulting in a faint hope of an afternoon watching Leinster in the Heineken Cup, while simultaneously ‘supervising’, being cruelly dashed!

 The normal format of the event was followed, with an initial grading round leading to the players being broken up into 4 divisions based on their grading round results.

 Semi Finalists in Division 4 were Andrew Timmins (St. Colmcilles), Derek Mulholland (Raven), Jack Carroll (Ballyroan) and Conor McShane (Blackrock), with Mulholland defeating McShane in the final.

 In Division 3, the semi finalists were James Carroll (Ballyroan), Mimi Nguyen (Deansrath), Ian Manley (St. Tiernans) and Claire Handcock (Rathdowney), with Manley defeating Carroll in the final.

 Division 2 quarter finals saw an all York Road matchup between Joe Proudfoot and Ali McCool, with McColl coming through; Jessie Hayes (Mountrath) defeated Kenneth Lyons(Blackrock); Andrew Mansfield (Rathdowney) came through against George Goodson (Mountrath), while James O’Connor(Blackrock) won his match against Paudi McDonald(Ballyroan).  Hayes and O’Connor were the final matchup after wins over McCool and Mansfield, with O’Connor taking the Division 2 win.

 In Division 1, the 5-8 places were made up of Katie Hayes (Mountrath), and Andrew Robinson, Tim Maguire and Bernard O’Sullivan (all Blackrock).  It was a Midlands monopoly in the semi finals, with Scott Jestin (Mountrath) overcoming Diarmuid Whelan (Ballyroan) in the first semi final, while Eoghan Whelan (Ballyroan) was the winner over John Mansfield (Rathdowney) in semi final 2.  A close final was taken by Eogan Whelan, beating Scott Jestin into 2^nd place.

 UCD would like to thank everyone who supported the event, and look forward to seeing everyone again at another event in Belfield in the future.

 Thanks must go to Con O’Ceadaigh and Maria Gallagher at the control table for putting some shape on the chaos(!) that is a Challenger event, to the Committee and team members who assisted with running the event as well as with the hall set-up and also to Tommy Fitzgerald of Stiga for providing the prizes for the event.

 Results

Division 1             1              Eoghan Whelan                   Ballyroan

                           2             Scott Jestin                         Mountrath

                          3-4          John Mansfield                     Rathdowney

                                         Diarmuid Whelan                  Ballyroan

                          5-8          Katie Hayes                          Mountrath

                                         Tim Maguire                         Blackrock

                                         Bernard O’Sullivan                 Blackrock

                                         Andrew Robinson                   Blackrock

Division 2              1              James O’Connor                  Blackrock

                            2              Jessie Hayes                      Mountrath

                            3-4           Ali McCool                          York Road

                                           Andrew Mansfield                 Rathdowney

                           5-8          George Goodson                  Mountrath

                                           Kenneth Lyons                     Blackrock

                                           Paudi McDonald                   Ballyroan

                                           Joe Proudfoot                      York Road

Division 3              1              Ian Manley                           St. Tiernans

                            2              James Carroll                       Ballyroan

                            3-4           Claire Handcock                    Rathdowney

                                            Mimi Nguyen                        Deansrath

Division 4              1              Derek Mulholland               Raven

                            2              Conor McShane                  Blackrock

                            3-4           Jack Carroll                        Ballyroan

                                            Andrew Timmins                 St. Colmcilles

The first STIGA Challenger Series of the season took place in Lucan last weekend, hosted by Club Donic. As usual, this event which seeks to support ITTA participation projects by offering new and developing players a chance to play a tournament in a fun environment was a great success, with 140 children taking part. Well done to all who entered and to our sponsor STIGA for providing the prizes.

Divisional Results

DIV1-MARTIN WILLIAMS-AMYLOU HAYES–LUKE DEMPSEY AND BRIAN DUNLEAVY

DIV2-KEITH HODGINS-DYLAN CARSON-HARRY MC GOLDRICK,KEVIN WANG

DIV3-EOIN WHELAN-DYLAN GRACE-ADAM SHAKROKI-DAVID HALFORD

DIV4-CHRIS MC CORMACK-CONOR BROGAN-JONATHAN NYLAND AND JACK RYAN

DIV5-AOIBHE CLARKE-ALAN O’REILLY-JACK THOMPSON AND ROBBIE GILL

DIV6-ADAM HALFORD-RYAN ELLISON-MATTHEW MC CORMACK AND MICHAEL MC CLUSKEY

Last weekend witnessed an exciting start to the Junior domestic season with the STIGA Irish Junior Classification held in DCU, Dublin. Entries were up 17% on 2010 and clubs from all over the country were represented. With players aged from 8-17, the focus of the fans as always was on the elite players – however with the group into group qualification system and the provision of Plate events, there were lots of matches for all players, including many who were playing their first National event. Full results from every match played are available here –

http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=A255AAAC-ED85-4ED1-843E-399B193E7731

Many thanks to our excellent volunteers who have driven the roll-out of Tournament Software which was piloted in this event.

Event Summary – Girls

As is almost traditional, Ashley Givan took 1st place in the Under 17 Girls event and she did so in style without dropping a set in the entire event. She defeated international team-mate Edel O’Reilly in the Final (4,4,8). O’Reilly had a scare in the Semi-Final against Katie McGlone, who took the first two sets to set up a potential shock. O’Reilly is known for her gritty determination and claimed a vital 3rd set 14-12, before closing out the match in sets 4 and 5 to claim her spot in the Final. Elayna McGlone produced some fireworks to progress to finish 6th in the event, with a spectacular win over Emma Ludlow. 

There was a little more pressure on Elayna McGlone in the Under 14 event, where she was 2nd seed. She did not disappoint and progressed to the Final, with good wins over Sarah Cooney and Chloe O’Halloran. In the Final, she faced Hannah Lynch Dawson, the top seed. Lynch-Dawson was in fine form having defeated Valentine Puotkalis and Rebecca Finn, and she justified her seeding in a tumultuous battle with McGlone, recovering from a 2-1 deficit to eventually claim the match in the last set (11-9).

In the Under 12 Girls, a shock was on the cards as Kate Whelan belied her No.10 seeding to claim the title, producing the best table tennis of her career to date. She claimed victory in the semi-final in straight sets, before repeating the trick in the Final against Rebecca Finn. With this result, Whelan has confirmed her arrival on the National scene and will be a player to watch this season.

The Under 10 event is a fun event to introduce players to competitive table tennis – well done to all who took part and in particular to Ciara O’Toole who claimed the Winner’s trophy.

Event Summary – Boys

In the Under 17 Boys, top seed Declan O’Brien knew he would have a tough battle on his hands to claim his first trophy of the season. This arrived in the shape of Shi Zhao Li who pushed him all the way in the Semi-Final, with O’Brien happy to claim a narrow final set victory. He faced Ryan Farrell in the Final and was clinical in his victory, dropping just the 1st set.

In the Under 14 Boys, again the event went to top seed Kevin Hutchinson, who produced some great table tennis to dominate the event. His opponent in the Final was surprise package Alan Walsh, who will be delighted with his win over Jonathan Porter in the Semi-Final, despite the concession of the Final in straight sets – a great start to the season for Walsh.

The Boys Under 12 section was very difficult to predict in advance and so it proved on the day with Alexander Gillen claiming the title despite being seeded outside the top 10. He was impressive in defeating both Brian Dunleavy and Martin Williams to progress to a Final against Evin McGovern. Again, he rose to the occasion with a 3-1 victory to claim the title.

The Under 10 event is a fun event to introduce players to competitive table tennis – well done to all who took part and in particular to Paul Cooney who claimed the Winner’s trophy.

Many thanks to all who volunteered over the weekend – to our top table personnel, to our hall set-up crew and to the volunteers who worked very hard on the draw and introducing new technology to our events. Finally, thanks to all of the players who took part – we look forward to seeing you all again at the Ulster Junior Open.

St. Joseph’s Hall, Ballyjamesduff was the venue on Saturday for the STIGA Cavan Challenger.  A total of 41 players took part and a great day was had by all.  Players from Castlerahan, Cootehill, Islandmagee, Fivemiletown, Drung, Ballymoney, Drum and a few players from no club all took part.  There were some nail-biting matches in each division and everyone managed to enjoy their games.  Thanks to STIGA sixteen of the participants went home with very nice prizes indeed!!!  The first places in each division were as follows: Division 1: Kris Foster (Fivemiletown), Division 2: Dylan Murdock (Castlerahan), Division 3: Joshua Murdock (Castlerahan), Division 4: Cian McCabe (Castlerahan). Congratulations to all who took part and the volunteers who gave up their time to assist in the organisation of the day.  Thanks also to all those who contributed beautiful cakes, sandwiches and biscuits!!!

Further to our continuing focus on Community Games Finals, congratulations to four very happy boys, who recently beat Two Mile House to win the Under 13 boys Kildare County Final.  

Pictured from left to right are: Donie Mullally, Shane Hurley, Evin McGovern and Alex McGovern – Thanks to Jacqui Mullally for providing the details.

Congratulations to Dunshaughlin TTC Under 13 Girls who won a thrilling Meath Community Games Final against Boardsmill last weekend. In a nailbiting encounter hosted by Clonard TTC, the Dunshaughlin girls qualified for the next stage of Community Games competition in a match that went to the 5th set of the deciding doubles game. Table tennis is one of the many events run by Community Games Ireland and has been a frequent entry point for new players into the game. We would encourage our younger members to get involved in this wonderful competition.

Connacht hosted the latest round of the Stiga Challenger Series, on Sunday 30th January 2011. Breaffy House Hotel Resort hosted the event, which saw 71 players from Mayo, Galway, Sligo, and Westmeath taking part.
In what was a fun atmosphere, with many players playing in their first big event, a fantastic day of table tennis was enjoyed by all. With the youngest player being 7years old and the oldest 17years, there was a good mixture of ages across the groups and also a large number of girls playing in the event. Every player got to play 12 matches throughout the day. Play started at 10.00am and finished at 6.15pm.

The morning session consisted of two rounds of group matches with four and five players per group -17 groups in total per round.  The afternoon session saw the players divided into 11 groups of 6 and 7 players per group, with everyone playing each other. Boy and girls played each other in every stage of the event and in some cases the girls outshone the boys.

Connacht would like to thank the Women in Sport and Participation Programme for supporting them in making this event possible as through the funding more players are playing table tennis, and overall table tennis is the winner.
 
Division 1  1st Martin Williams (Mayo) 2. Daragh Egan  3. Brian Dunleavy

Division 2  1st Brian Durkin (Galway)     2. Martin-Edward Ditchburn  3. Barry Gillen

Division 3. 1st Eamon Corcoran (Mayo) 2. Paul Howley 3. Michelle Hodgins

Division 4. 1st Naill Clayton (Mayo) 2. Keith Hodgins 3. Adam Hardy

Division 5  1st Michelle McEllin (Mayo) 2. Sean McNally 3. James Joyce

Division 6 1st Amanda Taylor (Sligo) 2. Jessica King  3. Emer Gilligan

Division 7 1st Allistar Craig (Sligo)  2. Daniel Foy  3. Padraig Langan

Divison 8  1st Tara Molloy (Galway) 2. James McNally  3. Daniel Plaster

Division 9 1st Shane Foy (Mayo) 2. Niamh Cowans 3. Shauna Lydon.

Division 10 1st Sam Cowans (Westmeath) 2. Sarah Dunleavy 3. Eamon Morris

Division 11. 1st Cain Tigue (Mayo) 2. Karen Costello  3. Ashling Cowans

Tralee Table Tennis Club, Tralee, Co. Kerry

Despite the sub-zero weather conditions and very icy roads, 43 young players turned up to play in the first Munster Stiga Junior Challenger Event, hosted by Tralee Table Tennis Club. There was a large local contingent and players also travelled from clubs in Killarney and Kinneigh.

After registration at 9 AM, play got under way bang on time at 10 AM. A total of 168 matches were played on twelve tables over the next few hours.

Players were initially divided into groups of four who played each other in a Round Robin format to help decide which divisions to allocate players for the main event.

There were four divisions, with twelve players in each of the top three. Each division was split into two with the six players again competing in a Round Robin format. The seven players in Division Four played each other and the winner and runner up contested the Division Four final.

The finals were contested between the winners of the sub-divisions, Winner of 1A vs. Winner of 1B. etc. In the First Division Final, local favourite Andrew O’Callaghan put up a very good show against Killarney’s Michael Lagan, losing by a 3-1 margin.

This was a great chance for junior players to gain experience in a tournament, and every player got at least eight matches. All matches until the finals were played best-of-three.

Prizes for the top four in each division were sponsored by STIGA and supplied by TommyFitzgerald Table Tennis.

Results:

Division 1:

1st Michael Lagan (Killarney)

2nd Andrew O’Callaghan (Tralee)

3rd Jamie McCarthy (Kinneigh), Trevor Tobin (Kinneigh)

Division 2:

1st Eoin Foran (Killarney)

2nd Brandon Boyle (Tralee)

3rd Brielle Brady (Killarney), Kerry O’Mahony (Killarney)

Division 3

1st Donagh McMahon (Tralee)

2nd Michael Creagh (Tralee)

3rd Devon Brady (Killarney), Darren Chester (Tralee)

Division 4

1st Kevin Browne

2nd Mark Fitzgerald

3rd Nykyta Puotkails (Killarney, and our youngest player!), Joe Slattery (Tralee)