Posts in category: International Events

Photo – Paul McCreery(with thanks to ETTA Facebook)

Bristol Grand Prix – Results

A number of Irish international were in action last weekend at the Bristol Grand Prix. Some great results, including a great win by Paul McCreery over Great Britain Olympic hopeful Darius Knight. Some highlighted results below;

MEN’S SINGLES

Paul McCreery beat Darius Knight 3-1 in the semi-final.  English International Knight is on the British Long List for the London 2012 Olympics.  McCreery  lost in the Final to Gavin Rumgay of Scotland, also on the Long List for 2012.  Paul lost 3-1, but had a chance to draw level at 2-2 when he led 10-8 in 4^th set before losing.

Ashley Robinson lost to Darius Knight 3-1 in 2^nd round, while Gavin Maguire lost in the last 32.

BAND 1

McCreery justified his number 1 seeding in the Men’s Band 1 Singles by making the title his. En route to the final Paul saw off Tomasz Rzeszotko and Ryan Owen. Lining up alongside him was Garth Kinlocke, he took out Ashley Robinson 3-1 and Victor Guang Shi 3-0. The final match of the day started well for Paul with an 11-6 first set win, and looked like one way traffic with him 8-2 in the second set, but Garth had other ideas. He pulled back to take the second end 14-12, Paul managed to make that second set just a blip taking the next two games 11-7 to claim the title.

Gavin Maguire lost in the Quarter Final to Ryan Owen of Wales. 

UNDER 21

Ashley Robinson beat Garth Kinloch in Q/F, and lost to Matt Ware in S/F

The Munster Junior Girls Table Tennis team of Ballincollig’s Emily Burns and Leah Daly, and Kinneigh’s Aisling Healy had a hugely successful weekend at the Junior British League Qualifying event in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
The girls sailed through their programme of matches to a thrilling play-off against Burton Uxbridge at the end of the day.They finished in 1st position, beating their English opponents 3-nil.  Emilly, Leah and Aisling secured a place for the Junior Girls in the next stage of the League in Wolverhampton in October.
The Munster Cadet team of Ballincollig’s James O’Reilly, Gearoid O’Donoghue and Alan Walsh got off to a shaky start with some tough matches against Team London.  They drew that match 3-3 and went on make some spectacular wins. However the match ratio went against them as the day wore on and the team failed to qualify for the next round.  They finished 3rd in their group of 6 – an excellent result for three  u14s in their first British League event.  Better luck next year!
The Junior Boys team of Kinneigh’s Barry and Brian Kelleher, Damien Tobin and Killarney’s Michael Lagan also had a very eventful day.  They faced tough opposition from the very start and though all boys played exceptionally well and won many matches, they didn’t finish in the top two in their group.  The Junior Boys learned a lot from their weekend, got experience against players with different styles of play and look forward to using that experience on the domestic scene from September. 
The Cadet Girls team of Killarney based Valentina Poutkalyte, Devon and Brielle Brady and Courtney Drummond had a great day in Grantham.  They won some fantastic matches.  The young  girls, none of whom have played at this level before, gained valuable experience which will benefit them hugely at Munster and Irish Rankings in the season ahead.
All in all, while the entire Munster Junior British League Team had a successful and enjoyable weekend in Grantham,  the weekend undoubtedly belonged to Emily, Leah and Aisling.  Well done girls and congratulations to Coach, Alan Hurley.
Thanks to Colette O’Reilly for the report and photo

Ireland’s first day at the European Youth Championships got off to a disappointing start. First into action was the Cadet Girls, who faced off against Belgium at 9am this morning. Ashley Givan was first into action against Florence Vanacker. Givan raced into a one set lead, but Vanacker fought back to take the next three sets and edge Belgium into a 1:0 lead. Edel O’Reilly, making her debut at the European Championships, was ice cool as she defeated Evi Janssens in straight sets to level the match. Next up were the crucial Doubles, and the Irish duo pushed Belgium all the way in a thrilling 5 setter, before eventually succumbing 11:9 in the 5^th set. Givan was immediately back in action, levelling the match at 2:2 in another 5 setter. That set up a final match showdown between O’Reilly and Vanacker. Again, O’Reilly took a one set lead, but Vanacker was on the comeback trail again and took the next 3 sets to take the match for Belgium. But this was an encouraging performance by the Irish Cadets who will look to take a win against either Israel or Ukraine in their next group matches.

At lunch time today, the Junior Boys were into action against Luxembourg. This was a match that the Irish were hoping to win and they will have to work hard to pick themselves up from a disappointing less. Paul McCreery took two wins as expected, defeating Jan Thews and Sven Hansen, dropping just one set along the way. This is a big tournament for McCreery, capping off a fine season for the National No.1, and he will be delighted with his start.  Teammates Robinson and Logue would have hoped to pick up that crucial 3^rd win. Logue was closest, taking a 2 set lead against Eric Glod. Glod fought back to take the 3^rd 14:12 and from there cruised to the victory. Robinson lost out to Jan Thews and Sven Hansen. The Junior Boys will be back in action at 9am tomorrow(7am Irish time) – which will be streamed live here:

http://www.laola1.tv/en/int/ettu/video/205–.html

12 months ago an Irish team produced an outstanding performance at the Senior Schools International hosted by the ITTA in Limerick. Roll the clock forward and a squad of 12 Irish players travel to Lilleshall, England for the 2011 iteration of this event this weekend.

Last year, the squad (pictured), claimed 4 individual Gold medals and 1 team Gold – a remarkable achievement. Of the 2010 squad, the vast majority remain in 2011 and will take a very positive experience into the Lilleshall event. Speaking ahead of the event, ITTA Performance Director John O’Donoghue stated:

“Following last season’s amazing feat of winning four Golds out of six in the individuals in the event staged in Limerick,we are looking forward to a fantastic Schools International. We have strong teams in all age groups and we are optimistic for a good tournament and while it will be difficult to rrepeat last year’s triumph, we are hopeful of some medal winning performances.”

Boys Preview

In the Senior event, the Irish Boys are Sam Logue and Ashley Robinson. Robinson claimed Gold in the Intermediate Individuals last year, while Logue missed much of last year’s event with an injury and will look to make up for that in 2011. They have been drawn against England B, Scotland B and Guernsey and will certainly look to progress from this group. Robinson is 2^nd seed in the Individual event.

In the Intermediates, Eastpoint’s Ryan Farrrell and Ballincollig’s Declan O’Brien team-up. They have a yough group draw and will face England A. Both players are in the top 10 here and will look to have a big impact on the tournament to finish their season off on a high.

Jonathan Porter and Kevin Hutchinson are in the Cadet event and again will face a strong England A selection.

Girls Preview

Munster’s Deirdre Murphy and Connacht’s Sarah Timlin(playing her last event at Junior level) make up the Irish team here and will face both England and Scotland A in the Group. They will have a difficult task against the hosts, but may well cause an upset against the Scots.

At Intermediate Level, that familiar partnership of Ashley Givan and Edel O’Reilly move up an age group from last year and will look to medal over the course of the weekend – they certainly will be pumped up for this event.

Hannah Lynch-Dawson and Emma Ludlow feature for the Cadet Girls. Both will fancy their chances and Lynch-Dawson is the highest seed of the non-English based players.

Further event details are available here:

http://www.estta.org.uk/News%2012%20-%20Lilleshall%202011.html

Best wishes to the Irish squad.

From the 11th-13th June a squad of 8 Irish Cadet players travelled to Hasselt, Belgium for the International Youth Cup.

This event is frequently attended by Irish squads and allows for lots of matches against opponents from all over Europe. Overall, there were good showings by the team which included some players making their international debut; Evin McGovern, of Club Donic, Gearoid O’Donoghue of Ballincollig TTC and Zak Wilson of Glenburn TTC. Both Boys teams(Cadet/Under 12) finished  16th from about 45 teams. In particular, Ryan Farrell did well in the Singles, losing a close match to be eliminated at the Round of 32.lost close in last 32. Zak Wilson’s performances were also a highlight, winning 13 of his singles and all of the others showed good promise for the future.

Full Squad

Emma Ludlow

Hannah Lynch-Dawson

Ryan Farrell

Kevin Hutchinson

James O’Reilly

Gearoid O’Donoghue

Evin McGovern

Zak Wilson

A strong Irish team travelled to the Netherlands last week to represent their country in the World Individual Championships. Under the guidance of NPC Peter Nilsson, Amanda Mogey produced the stand-out performances for  the team. Below, ITTAWeb summarises the main results of the event:

Mens

In the preliminary group, National Champion John Murphy recorded a straight sets victory over Yemen’s AL-MAHAQERI, before losing 1:4 to PLATONOVof Belarus. Paul McCreery lost both games of his group, losing in a 3:4 battle agains MPEMBA of Ivory Coast and 1:4 to Iran’s AKHLAGHPASAND.

In the consolation event, John Murphy took a 3:0 victory over MUKTAR, before being eliminated by Canada’s HINSE in the last 64.

McCreery was eliminated by Israeli BEN ARI 2:3 to conclude his involvement in the Singles event.

Both players rankings have been affected negatively by this tournament, with McCreery now at 735, while Murphy slips back to 959.

Womens

The youngest member of the squad, Ashley Givan lost both matches in her preliminary group, losing 3:4 to GODOY of Guatemala and in straight sets to Slovenian SAFRAN. Amanda Mogey recorded a win in her preliminary group over Costa Rica’s Martinez, before succumbing to TODOROVIC of Serbia 1:4.

In the consolation event, Givan was eliminated at the first stage, despite a battling performance against VESKOVSKA of MKD. This will hopefully be the first of many World Championships for the Ulster Junior and she will surely benefit from the experience of playing among the world’s elite.

Mogey also entered the consolation event and produced a string of impressive performances.  In the 1^st Round, she defeated BALLOUCHY of Morocco 3:0. This set up a tight match with LOPEZ of Guatemala – both players at a similar point on the World Ranking list. Mogey recovered from losing the 1^st set to claim a 3:1 victory. In the Round of 32, TCHERESTOVA of Jordan was also put away by a 3:1 scoreline.  A confident Mogey then faced MEDINA of Colombia, a player ranked hundreds of places above her in the ITTF Rankings at WR238. Undaunted, she dismantled the South American 3:0 – without doubt her best international result to date. Mogey’s incredible run eventually came to a halt at the Quarter Final stage – American Prachi eliminating her in straight sets. On foot of her performances, Mogey now moves up almost 100 places in the World Rankings – now at 738. Ashley Givan is ranked at 1134.

Well done to the entire team – most will now enjoy a well deserved Summer break before pre-season in July.

The ITTF World Individual Championships kicks off this weekend, with 4 Irish players in action. Paul McCreery and National Champion John Murphy are our two Male entries, with Junior player Ashley Givan and Amanda Mogey entered into the Women’s events.  Speaking as the team prepares to depart following good preparation at the Luxembourg Open, ITTA Technical Director John O’Donoghue stated:

“Our young squad of players are looking forward to testing themselves against the best in the world. It is a wonderful opportunity to gain valuable experience and to learn from the best players in the world at these top quality Championships. In Ashley Givan and Paul McCreery we have two very young players who have great potential for the future. Both John Murphy (the 5 times National Champion) and Amanda Mogey will bring all their experience and skill to the Championships and will be hoping for good results to improve their world rankings. I wish them and coach Peter Nilsson all the best for the event”

I am sure all members of the Irish table tennis community will be rooting from afar for the Irish players – best wishes to all for a successful tournament. ITTAWeb will feature daily updates from Rotterdam.

Preparation for Worlds

In preparation for the May World Individual Championships, the Irish Men and Women’s Senior teams were in Luxembourg at the Luxembourg Open. The “Luxembourg Open Table Tennis Championships” Event is officially recognized by ETTU and ITTF and all played matches will be taken into account for the World Ranking. The tournament features some top players, led by top seed Pistej Lubomir of Slovakia who is just outside the top 100 Men in the world and Timina Elena of the Netherlands who is Nr.102 in the ITTF World Rankings. The Irish squad is made up of National Champion John Murphy and Paul McCreery, with Ulster’s Amanda Mogey and Ashley Givan on the Women’s team.

Draw and Format

In the first day of play, the Irish Men were drawn against ‘France 2’ in the Team event, while the Women were drawn against Brazil. The Team Events’ matches (Men and Women) is played with teams of 2 players, according to a “reduced Corbillon-Cup system” with 2 single matches ( A1 against B1 and A2 against B2 ) and 1 double match, which shall however be played only if the score after the two single matches is 1:1. 

Results – Men

In the Qualifying Round, Ireland produced a good performance to beat ‘France 2’. McCreery beating Pineau in a thrilling five setter before Murphy dropped a match to Brosson, with the Irish eventually clinching victory with a solid Doubles performance to progress. The duo then lost to ‘Sweden 1’, SODERLUND and ANDERSSON. McCreery lost the first -11, -4, -2 while Murphy battled hard against Soderlund taking the first two sets but eventually losing 3-2. Israel eventually clinched the title in somewhat unfortunate fashion as Iran refused to fulfil the fixture.

In the Singles, McCreery lost is straight sets in the 1^st Round to Sargu of Romania. Playing for places, McCreery also lost his next match to the Ukrainian Pysar, before claiming two wins over Pineau from France and Roose of Sweden to finish 72nd overall. Murphy also lost 4:1 to Ter Luun of the Netherlands in the first round, before recording his solitary victory over Samsan from Bahrain to finish 78th.

Results – Women

In the First Round, Ireland had a very tough draw against 3^rd seeds brazil. A surprise was never on the cards as Mogey and Givan lost both matches without picking up a set. Into the Classification Round and the Irish had a truly nailbiting encounter against ‘Sweden 2’, with each of the 3 matches going to 5 sets. Givan picked up an excellent win in the singles over APPELGREN before the duo closed out the match with a stunning doubles victory. In the Women’ final Belarus overcame Romania with Camelia POSTOACA and Andrada VINCZE.

In the Singles, Givan took the first set but eventually lost 4:1 to GONDERINGER of Luxembourg and struggled to find a win in the event, although came close in a thrilling 4:3 loss to Michelle Quach(11-9 in the 7th).

Mogey eventually claimed a Singles victory for the Irish, beating Michelle QUACH of Sweden 4:2. She then faced top seed Timina in the next round – Timina was too strong and won in straight sets – she went on to win the competition outright. Playing for places, Mogey defeated home player Schlink and Swede Appelgren to finish 36th overall.

Ireland had a triumphant weekend at the 6 Nations Primary Schools Championships in Cardiff this weekend. In the Team event held on Friday evening and Saturday, the Irish Girls claimed gold with some incredible performances, the highlight of which was a 7:3 victory over England. The team, made up of Marie Williams, Rebecca Finn, Nga Nguyen and Kerry O’Mahoney all played fantastic table tennis to bring the gold back to Ireland. NPC for the weekend was Anne Ludlow who was understandably delighted with her charges;” The squad of Irish players behaved and performed fantasically.  The players should all be proud of their achievements at this amazing event. 
For the girls to win Gold for was a brilliant result.  Even though the match scores may look straight forward, each individual game was hard fought and the girls put in 100% effort and support for their team mates – 44 wins out of 50 is pretty good going!
The boys team played excellently to grab the Bronze medal, with joint favourites England and Scotland claiming Gold and Silver.  The boys knew going into their last match that they were under pressure to get at least a draw for that medal but went one better and got the win.

The Boys and Girls were a great squad to take away and are a credit to their parents and clubs.”

The Boys were also on the hunt for medals, with Connacht trio Martin Williams, Brian Dunleavy and Martin-Edward Ditchburn and Leinster’s Conor Gallagher all in top form. Recording wins over Jersey, Isle of Man and Guernsey, the team suffered a narrow 6:4 defeat to Scotland before securing a dramatic 5:5 draw with their Welsh hosts, finally succumbing to a strong England team. This left them in Bronze medal position, which represents an improvement over 2010’s performance and the team will be delighted to bring home some medals. A celebratory pizza was had by the teams who were in jubliant form!

The Singles on Sunday again saw the Irish girls perform strongly. Late call-up Marie Williams was in sensational form and progressed to the Final where she lost to Kate Roberts of Wales. Finn and Nguyen were eliminated at the semi-final stage and claimed bronzes. 3 of the 4 medals on offer went to the Irish girls – surely a strong team for the future. The Boys had a tougher time but will have learned massively from their first international experience.