Posts in category: International Events

Team Ireland has gotten off to a sensational start at the World Team Championships in Tokyo, Japan. The team is made up of Paul McCreery, Ashley Robinson, Gavin Maguire and Ryan Farrell, with John Murphy Head Coach.

John updates us below in his Worlds diary…

Pre-Tournament

Having arrived in Tokyo on Friday morning after almost 24 hours travelling the team took the option to relax for the rest of the day to try to get over the jet lag. This left us with two full days of preparation which was ideal.

We started on Saturday morning with a long 2.5 hours session followed by a shorter evening session where we were joined by Israel Number 2 Guy Elensky which added an extra challenge for the players. Having had such a long day Saturday we decided that Sunday we would have only one session in the morning. Again we were lucky to have Elensky join us along with Norway’s Lars Ronneberg which provided something new for our squad in terms of match preparation

There is a great team spirit within this group combined with very relaxed feeling as the players know that they have prepared well ahead of a tough start to the Championships tomorrow against Lativa 1pm and Mexico 7.30pm.

Day 1

Thankfully our investment to travel early has paid off with the lads recording a very good 3-1 victory over Lativa in our first match. Paul leading the team with two wins over Arthur Reinholds and Olegs Kartusovs with Ashley chipping in at number 3 with one win over Leonids Maslovs 3-1

Gavin lost out in the other rubber to Kartusovs 12-10 in the last.

Our second match on day one was against top seeds in our group Mexico. Marcos Madrid their number 3 is ranked 150 in the world so it was always going to be a tough one. Paul started against their number 2 and looked to be in total control leading 2-0 before eventually losing out 11-8 in the fifth. Ashley lost to their number 1 3-0 and Gavin playing at number 3 lost 3-1. Although they are a strong team both myself and lads had felt that we failed to reach our highest level both mentally and technically in the game. Lessons to be learned….. 

Day 2

Playing at 10am against New Zealand gave us little time to regroup after our loss to Mexico late the night before.

We had a short team meeting over dinner and tried to learn from our previous mistakes at other major championships where we had struggled mentally after a loss. We started with the same team – again Paul winning the first match against Phillip Xiao 3-1. Ashley then recorded a good win under pressure against the experienced Shane Laugersen 3-1. Gavin finished a fine team performance with an easy 3-0 victory over John Cordue. This performance shows how far we have come as team in the last couple of years.

Summary so Far

A very positive start after two days of play with Kuwait ( 19.30 ) to play tomorrow and Guatemala ( 13.00 ) the following day we are on course for a top 3 finish in the group and a place in the main draw where we will be in the hunt for promotion to the second tier of world table tennis. Ryan Farrell who is at the worlds for the first time has had a very positive impact on the group and although has not featured so far has made a huge contribution to our good start here in Tokyo.

It is also great to see Paul really lead the team as number one. Sitting on the bench, we as team really feel that he is capable of beating anyone in our Division which is a great positive.

A large squad of Irish players are competing in the Luxembourg Open this week, with some significant results recorded. Amanda Mogey has been the star performer of the Irish contingent, with some big wins in the Women’s Singles event.

With a 1^st Round 4-0win over Algerian Islem Laid, Mogey faced a difficult contest against the 13^th seed, Sweden’s Jennifer Jonsson who is World Ranked 303. Mogey put in her best international performance for some time, with a massive 4-2 victory to send her in to the last 16 tomorrow morning where she will face home based player Gonderinger who is seeded 6.

Elsewhere, Gavin Maguire had two wins over Mladenovic of Luxembourg and Josh Band of Jersey before being eliminated by Anton Kallberg 4-2. Paul McCreery had a titanic 4-3 win over Austrian Serdaroglu, before dropping out of the main event at the last 32 stage with a defeat by Swede Simon Arvidsson.

Sarah Timlin, Emma Ludlow, Hannah Lynch-Dawson, Ryan Farrell and Ashley Robinson are all also in action in Luxemborg and with the exception of Mogey who remains in the main event, all of the players will be battling for places in the play-off events over the weekend.

Irish internationals Gavin Maguire(pictured serving above) and Ashley Robinson are in action today in the ITTF World Tour Event at Magdeburg, Germany.

Both players are drawn in tough groups against players ranked just outside the top 100 in the World Rankings. Maguire fell to a 4-1 defeat to Ionescu of Romania and faces Kolarek of Croatia in his next group game. Robinson faced a top Korean player Kim, ranked 115 and gave him a real battle, losing out 4-2 in the end, losing the final set 11-9. He will take confidence from this in to his game later today with Zolt.

In the Doubles tonight, a tough Taipei pair lie in wait for the Irish duo, and again they will be chasing a big scalp and looking to pull off a shock win.

Further update tomorrow on ITTAWeb.

Team Events

Cadet Boys ( Evin Mc Govern, Alexander Gillen )

The boys finished in 4^th place overall beating Isle of Man 5-0 and Guernsey 4-1. In the other matches the boys were unlucky going down 3-2 against both Wales and Scotland before losing out 3-1 to eventual winners England 3-1 where Gillen picked up a good win over Hugo Pang.

Cadet Girls ( Katie Mc Glone, Rebecca Finn )

The girls finished with a silver medal overall with 5-0 wins over Scotland A and B, Wales and Guernsey. This left a final match with England for gold. Our girls had prepared well but in what can only be described as a strange match they lost out 3-0 having lead 2-0 in two of the rubbers. Silver medal for the girls was still good performance.

Junior Boys ( Tom Davis, Ryan Farrell )

The Boys finished with a bronze medal overall with 5-0 wins over Isle of Man and Guernsey and a 4-1 win over Scotland. It was here where the tournament got very interesting. Our boys had a 2-0 lead against Wales only to lose out 3-2 to the dismay of Irish coach Mark O Flynn. England who also had their own battle with Wales winning 3-2 left our boys knowing any win against England would give them a chance of gold. Ryan Lead the team with wins over Patel and a doubles win with Tom left the Irish with a 2-1 lead. Lawrence beat Ryan 3-0 to leave Tom playing for the match. In a match that had everything Tom himself saving six match points in the 4^th ( 2-1 10-4 ) to win 12-10. The 5^th could have went either way and Tom who left everything on the table went down 11-7. Top effort from the boys who will gain a lot form this experience.

Junior Girls ( Chloe O Halloran, Hannah Lynch Dawson, Emma Ludlow )

The Girls finished with a silver medal overall with 5-0 wins over Guernsey A and B, Wales and 4-1 win over Scotland. This left our girls in a final match with England for gold. The girls lost out to England 5-0 but will feel that another day they would be capable of more. A silver is still a very good result for our talented Junior Girls squad.

Singles Event

After a very good team meeting with all coaches and players on Saturday evening I felt all our players had chances of medals in the singles. As Sunday morning groups were underway I felt that there was a new air of confidence among our squad lead from new Senior International Ryan Farrell. 8 out of our 9 players progressed to the knockout stage with only Tom Davis falling short who was unlucky with the draw. I must note that it was maybe Toms fighting performance on Saturday evening that inspired our players for the battle in the singles.

Singles Knockout

Cadet Boys

Alex Gillen had a good 3-win over Jac Jenkins in the last 8 before going down not without his chances against European Number 9 cadet Tom Jarvis in the semi. Evin Mc Govern won 3-0 against Josh Stacey in last 16 before going down to Morrison of Scotland 3-1 in the last 8.

Cadet Girls

Both Rebecca and Katie came to the hall on Sunday with some unfinished business. In the last 8 Rebecca beat John of Wales 3-1 and Katie beat Plastow of Scotland 3-0. This left the girls with revenge matches against the girls they had lost to on the Saturday evening. Katie was first to book her place in the final with a confident 3-0 win over Kate Cheer. Rebecca who played her match of the tournament beat Payet 3-2 11-9 in the 5^th to book her place in the final. In the final the level was really high with Katie winning 3-1 to be crowned Six Nations Champion. A great performance from both our girls.

Junior Boys

Ryan Farrell beat Blair Fowler 3-0 in the last 8. In the last 4 is where Ryan really showed the level that he is playing at the moment with a fantastic 3-0 win over Lawrence of England. In the final Ryan started slow but fought hard to get into it but it wasn’t to be as he went down 3-0 to Ryan Olyer of Wales. He will feel that the win maybe slipped away but will surely take a lot of confidence from this performance.

Junior Girls

In the last 8 Hannah and Chloe meet and in what was always going to be a tight match Hannah won out in the end 3-1. Emma who was on the other side of the draw lost out to Lucy Elliott of Scotland 3-1. In The last 4 Hannah lost out in 3 sets to Tsaptsionos of England.

Summary

This was a very good performance from our team winning 3 team and 5 individual medals. The players are professional both on and off the table and I believe that this squad will only improve with time. Personally I think none of this would have been possible without the coaches Claire Nelson and Mark O Flynn who really believe in the players and worked very hard over the weekend to ensure that the players had every chance to perform to their best. Overall a great team performance from the players to the coaches.

John Murphy

18^th March 2014

http://www.gtta.org.uk/News/juniorcadet6nations2014

Munster Girls’ Success in Junior British League

The Munster trio of Kerry O’Mahoney, Mair Kelly and Shelley Tobin, together with NPC Alan Hurley travelled to Lilleshall National Sports Centre. again this weekend (February 8th & 9th, 2014) to continue their involvement in Girls’ Division Three of the Junior British League.

They were in a commanding position after their excellent performance over the first weekend in October, but there was still work to do!

In October, they were 6-0 winners against Ulster B, but a stronger team from Ulster this time around meant a very tight match. Kerry’s two wins and one from Mair were enough for them to share the points, 3-3. The afternoon match against wales B saw the three Munster players undefeated. And a 5-1 win over Norton Draycott put the Munster girls in a good position at the end of the first day’s play.

Next up, Batts B – not to be taken lightly as this was a drawn match last time out. But all three of the girls performed superbly and won all their matches. So with one left to play, there was every chance of a good result!

They knew they could not afford to lose to Ashford Brunswick, but in October they had won this fixture comfortably. But things were not going to be so easy this time, and after Kerry lost in the fifth set in the first match, alarm bells started to ring faintly! Then Mair and Shelly were beaten too! So 3-0 down at the half-way mark: one more loss and they were consigned to runners-up spot! 

But they rallied well (no pun intended) and first Kerry, then Shelly and finally Mair won their second matches under pressure to halve this match and put the Munster Girls on top of Division Three! They will play in Division Two next season!

Kerry was the top player in the Division across the two weekends, winning 17 of her 20 matches! The others weren’t far behind, both finishing in the Top 7!

Well done to the players and NPC Alan Hurley! 

Meanwhile, in Division One of the Boys’ competition, Munster’s Alan Walsh was helping the Irish Boys to second place with team-mates Zak Wilson and Ryan Farrell.

For more information:

https://www.tabletennis365.com/britishleague/Fixtures

Squad: Katie Mc Glone, Hannah Lynch Dawson, Kevin Hutchinson, Tom Davis, Ryan Farrell

Coaches: Sarah Timlin, John Murphy

Five members of the Irish junior squad travelled to Glasgow over the weekend to compete in the new look Grand Prix style West of Scotland Open. The event took place in Scotstoun which will be the venue for the Table Tennis for Commonwealth Games this July.

As there are so many matches and events at GPs this report will try to highlight some good performances.

Saturday Morning Bands:

Both Katie and Hannah started off there tournament in Women’s Band 2, which on paper looked like a very strong event. Both showed some really good performances with Hannah beating Cherith Graham (recent Munster Open Ladies finalist) 3-0 and Katie beating Emily Bolton 3-0. In the end Katie lost out in five sets in the quarter final to Scottish International Linda Flaws and Hannah went one step further losing out 3-0 to Nicole Hall of Wales in the semis.

Kevin and Tom both started there day off in Men’s Band 4. The boys who looked very sharp from the off, they played some good table tennis to cut their way through opposite sides of the draw to meet in the final. Kevin who started the better in the final ran out a 3-0 winner. Kevin had a notable win in the Semi Final 3-2 against former Scottish International Andy Dunlop.

Ryan started in Band 2 which is traditionally a very tough band to win. Ryan started a little slowly in his group but he showed some really good fighting qualities when he looked down and out in the fifth against Josh Band in is final group match, Ryan went on to win 12-10 to qualify in 2nd place. This set up an all-Ireland clash in the last 8 with Ryan taking on Daryl Strong who himself looked impressive winning his group. In a very close battle Ryan came out on top 3-1. This was probably the final as Ryan went on the record 3-0 wins in both semi-final and final and became the Band 2 Champion

Saturday Afternoon Bands:

Both Girls competed in Women’s Band 3. They both looked comfortable in the early rounds but unfortunately ended up in the same half of the draw and meet in the semi-final. With Lucy Elliott of Scotland waiting in the final the girls started their match. The semi-final itself was a very high quality match which really shows what a great level we have in underage girls’ table tennis in Ireland at the moment. Hannah won the and of course it was 3-2. Hannah went on the record a comfortable 3-0 win in the final to become Band 3 champion.

Kevin and Tom both played Band 3. After both coming through there groups to different sides of the draw they looked on course to repeat what they had done in the morning. Kevin met Andy Dunlop again in the last 8 but was unlucky to go down 3-2. Tom was the last man standing and meet Yasir Razouk in the semi-final and in a up and down match he lost out 3-1.

Ryan was in the Men’s Band 1 event which is great event for him with many international standard players in it. In tough group Ryan managed to beat Sephir Bidari 3-0 who he had lost to in the morning. This left him needing to win against either Kim Daybell or Chris Wheeler to progress. Unfortunately he lost 3-0 and 3-1 but it has to said he held every chance against Wheeler leading 1-0 and 8-5. Kim Daybell went on the win Band 1.

Sunday Morning Open Singles:

This is the main event of the weekend. In the Men’s event Tom, Ryan and John Murphy all qualified from the groups to the Knockout stages. Tom was first to fall as he went down 3-1 to Chris Wheeler but had his chance when leading 1-0 9-8. Both Ryan and John progressed to the quarter final with Ryan beating Daniel Swiatek and Yasir Razouk to book his place against world 234 Gavin Rumgay and John beating Saturdays Band 1 winner Kim Daybell to set up a last 8 meeting with Niall Cameroon. This was the end of the road for both players with John going down 3-2 having lead 2-0 and Ryan going down 3-0 but giving a very good account of himself against Rumgay on the TV court.

Other notable Irish performances was Daryl Strong beating Dean Cundy Wales 3-0 before losing out to Rumgay in the last 16 and Peter Graham losing a tight match against Callum Main in the last 32.

In the Women’s event both Hannah and Katie had good wins in the group. Hannah beat Dawn Morgen of Guernsey 3-0 and Lucy Elliot 3-2 and Katie beat Soffi Jenkins 3-1 and Linda Flaws 3-2. Both Qualified as second behind Hannah Hicks and Karina Le fevre. Sarah Timlin also played this event and was unlucky not to win her group losing out to Nicole Hall 11-9 in the 5th but qualified to the knockout stage in 2nd. Hannah and Sarah played in the last 16 which is always a difficult match for both but on this occasion Hannah ran out a 3-0 winner. Katie was straight into the last 8 and she lost out in a close match 3-1 against Nicole Hall. In the last 8 Hannah played Karina Le Fevre who she had nearly surprised back in November at the 6 Nations only going down 3-2 but Karina seemed to be ready on this occasion and Hannah lost out 3-0.

Under 21 Events:

By this stage our young players were starting to get tired, NPC John Murphy said “its good practice for our players to play when they are tired to improve their mental side of their games.”

In the Boys Ryan, Kevin and Tom all came through there groups. Kevin was the first to go when he lost to Daniel Swiatek. Ryan was next losing out to Colin Dagleish 3-1 (Eventual Winner). Tom was the last left in and played some of his best table tennis of the weekend which shows Toms mental and fitness levels are very strong. He had a good last 8 win against Scotlands Sephir Bidari before losing to Dagleish in the Semi Final 3-0.

In the Girls both Katie and Hannah won there groups which left them in opposite semi-finals. Hannah won her semi 3-0. This left Katie playing Linda Flaws for the 3rd time this weekend. Katie lead 2-1 but eventually went down 3-2. In the final Hannah had 2-0 lead but could not put it away and Linda ran out a 3-2 winner.

Other Highlights:

Irelands Daryl Strong won the Vets event in great style and Hannah Lynch Dawson was awarded the player of the weekend for her performances.

Upon returning home John Murphy said “This was a very worthwhile experience for our young squad with some very impressive results. I would like to thank the players for their hard work over the weekend and thank Sarah Timlin for her great work with all the players, she gave them great support both on and off the table.”

Report received from John Murphy, Photos Courtesy of the English Table Tennis Association

The Zen-noh World Team Championships will take place in Tokyo, Japan from 28 April to 5 May 2014.  Ireland will be represented by a Mens team comprising the following players :

• Paul McCreery
• Gavin Maguire
• Ashley Robinson
• Ryan Farrell

The NPC will be John Murphy.  On this occasion, a Womens team has not been selected for the event.  Commenting on the Mens team selection, John McGlone, High Performance Director said“The World Team Championships is the Blue Riband event in the 2014 calendar.  Paul, Gavin and Ashley are experienced competitors at this leveland will work hard to convert that experienceinto results for Ireland.  Ryan Farrell is our No.1 Junior boy and will gain significant experience from the event as he looks to commence his Senior career.We all hope to see a great performance from the team in Japan.”
Please comment below or tweet to show your support for the Team on their #RoadToJapan #SUFTBG (Stand Up For The Boys in Green)

Irish International Paul McCreery scored a huge win at the Doubles event at the ITTF World Tour Swedish Open this week. Partnering with England’s David McBeath, McCreery took the scalp of Turkish pair Ahmet and Bora with a scoreline of 11-4,9-11,11-4,14-12. This was a major result – Bora is World Ranked 93 and Ahmet is WR 119. In the next round(last 32), the Irish/English partnership were eliminated by Swedish duo Nordberg and Brodd which denied them an opportunity to challenge China’s Zhou Yu(WR.34) and France’s Lebesson(Wr:60).

In the Men’s Singles, McCreery lost out to Indian Ghosh(WR:154) and Belgian Allegro(WR:527), both on a 2:4 scoreline. In the Under 21’s, McCreery claimed a victory over Jiminez(WR:1073) of Puerto Rico before losing to Slovakia’s Novota(WR:355).

McCreery moves on to the Finland Open next week, where he will have a larger Irish squad joining him – watch out for event preview and review.

Irish qualifier Gavin Maguire says he couldn’t be happier to have made it to the World Championship of Ping Pong 2014, and beating two Irish greats en route to Alexandra Palace makes it even sweeter.

The 23-year-old from Dublin beat Colm Slevin and Paul McCreery in Irish qualifying for the tournament, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports on January 4 and 5, but hopes the duo can still join him via the ‘Last Chance Saloon’ qualifying event in Essex on January 2.

“I couldn’t be happier knowing that I am going to Alexandra Palace in January,” said Maguire. “I watched the whole event last year on Sky Sports and loved it.

“To qualify in the way I did makes it even sweeter, beating an Irish great like Colm Slevin, and current Irish great Paul McCreery made the victory all the sweeter. I just hope now they can qualify in the final chance qualifier as they deserve a place in Ally Pally.”

Maguire will find out in December who his first opponent will be in the double-elimination group stage. He joins Welshman Dean Cundy in London, who qualified on the same day as 2009 Irish Champion Maguire.

Reigning champion Maxim Shmyrev was involved in the Russian qualifiers, which took place November 8-10. Shmyrev will return to defend his crown at Alexandra Palace, and will be joined by qualifiers Dmitrij Popov, Ksenija Tulenkova and Vladislav Kuzenko.

Using traditional sandpaper rackets, the World Championship of Ping Pong is a throwback to the early days of table tennis.

Live on Sky Sports in the UK, 64 of the world’s best players will take part in the two-day tournament with a substantial prize fund and tickets are on sale now at SeeTickets.com (search ‘Ping Pong’).

The tournament takes place over four sessions, with a double elimination group stage featuring eight groups played out on eight tables on the Saturdayafternoon before the last 32 enter a knockout stage played across two tables in the evening.

On Sunday morning the last 16 will be whittled down to eight quarter-finalists, who will proceed to the evening session to battle it out for the 2014 World Championship of Ping Pong crown.