Posts in category: International Events

A squad of 7 Irish players travel to Stockton this weekend for the Stockton 4 Star event. This is a great opportunity for some of our young talents to compete at international level and we wish the squad all the best.

Boys

Ryan Farrell

Jonathan Porter

Kevin Hutchinson

Conor Mullally

Girls

Katie McGlone

Elayna McGlone

Hannah Lynch-Dawson

Congratulations to all selected and in particular to debutants Conor Mullally and Hannah Lynch-Dawson.

Full draw available here: http://etta.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/stockton.pdf

The Irish Senior Squad travelled to the Isle of Man over the past weekend to take part in the Senior Six Nations Championships. Good results are important for the Irish players as well as for the country as this prestigious tournament carries World Ranking points. Paul McCreery and John Murphy formed the Men’s Team with Peter Nilsson coach. Amanda Mogey and Claire Nelson represented the Women’s team with Arthur Brett as NPC.

Following a disappointing 4^th place finish in the 2009 event in Dublin, the Men were keen to register at least a medal performance in the Team event and they did not disappoint. They got off to a flying start, with 3-0 victories over Wales and Isle of Man on Friday night. England were next up, with the highly world ranked Darius Knight and Chris Doran looking formidable. While the Irish lost 3-0 here, the highlight was the spirited effort by McCreery in bringing Knight, ranked 358 place above him in the ITTF World Rankings, to a final set decider. Ireland then defeated Guernsey 3-0, John Murphy battling to a five set victory over Gary Dodds, the Guernsey Number One. The final match was to decide 2^nd place against Scotland. This was a thrilling match, with McCreery taking two wins and Murphy with the other. McCreery’s performance in a titanic struggle against Scotland’s Craig Howieson showed off the Ulster man’s full array of skills. Ireland thus claimed 2^nd place in the Team event and Silver Medals.

Mogey and Nelson came in to this event full of confidence following their performances at both the Senior European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. They recorded impressive wins against Wales, Scotland, Guernsey and the host nation. Key results included Mogey’s win over Alice Loveridge, who went on to win the Ladies Singles in the Individual Event. The Irish Women also claimed  Silvers in the Team event, which meant that the team took the overall Silver Medals for the combined Team Event.

The Irish medal haul was not yet complete, with McCreery winning a bronze in the Individual Men’s Singles Event, losing out to Darius Knight in 4 close sets in the Semi-Final. Claire Nelson also scored a bronze, losing to eventual winner Alice Loveridge in the Women’s Singles Semi-Final. Mogey did not progress from a very tough group which included 2 good English and Welsh players, while Murphy made it to the last 8 before succumbing to Howieson of Scotland in a thrilling 5 setter.

Overall, this was an excellent performance from what is still a very young Irish team squad and their coaches in bringing home 3 Silver Medals and 2 Bronze Medals.

 Congratulations to all involved.

A four-strong team of Irish cadets travel to Liverpool this weekend for the Liverpool 4 Star tournament.

The team, led by John O’Donoghue and Louise Long will compete in both the Junior and Cadet events over the course of the weekend. For Farrell and Slattery, this tournament comes on the back of domestic victories in the Junior Classification. Ludlow was a beaten finalist and Hutchinson a beaten semi-finalist in the same competition, so all players will be brimming with confidence on their first international outing of the season.

Cadet Boys : Ryan Farrell, Kevin Hutchinson – NPC John O’Donoghue
Cadet Girls : Meadhbh Slattery, Emma Ludlow – NPC Louise Long.

See tournament draw:http://etta.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/liverpool_junior_4star_draw_02-10-10.pdf

Northern Ireland will be represented in table tennis at the Commonwealth Games by Na Liu, Amanda Mogey, Claire Nelson, Ashley Givan and Paul McCreery. Best wishes to all players.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/table_tennis/8977799.stm for TV preview and here for TT Ulster Press Release.

Following some extremely difficult games in Group H at the European Senior Championships, the Irish Women’s Team claimed a hard fought victory over Finland in a thrilling encounter last night. Ireland had struggled against the higher ranked teams, suffering losses against Bulgaria, Denmark and Serbia.

Victories are not easily obtained at this level – having worked extremely hard to gain a 2 nil lead Ireland had to battle for every point to come out with an exciting 3-2 victory over the Finns. Claire Nelson took the first match in the fifth against ERIKSSON(a player with  medium pimples on one side and short on the other!). Amanda Mogey then dispatched Finnish No 1 PUNNONEN with a comfortable 3-0 victory. The Finns clawed two games back, leaving Claire Nelson to face PUNNONEN for the match. Nelson took a 2:0 lead, but the Finn was dogged and produced a fine topspin performance to bring it to a deciding set. Nelson fell behind 4-6 but dug deep and after some long exciting rallies ran out the winner 11-9 to seal the first victory in what was a very tough group. Ireland now await the draw for the play-off matches which decide finishing positions.

The below teams have been selected to represent Ulster at the UK Schools Games which commence today in the North East of England. Congratulations and best wishes to all selected…

Boys
Ashley Robinson
Stephen Slater
Darren Reilly
Neil Irwin
NPC Brian Orr

Girls
Ashley Givan
Roisin O’Reilly
Annalise walker
Emma Ludlow
NPC  Amanda Mogey

This weekend (28^th/29^th August) sees the end of the off-season and the start of another action packed domestic season of table tennis. The traditional curtain-raiser to the season – the Irish Senior Classification is also a crucial event in terms of establishing ranking position – results can have a massive effect on how each player’s season plays out. Following from last year’s trend, entries have again soared this year, with 123 players registered for the event.

The ITTA Events Committee has made the draw for the event. Play begins in UCD Sports Centre, Dublin on Saturday 28th August 2010 at 9.30am sharp. Entrance to UCD Sports Hall from 8.30am-10am is in the back entrance by the hockey pitch. The Event Finals on Sunday will be played in DCU Sports Arena, Glasnevin, again commencing at 9.30am sharp.

As always, the Qualifying Event can be notoriously unpredictable – this year’s Men’s event has 88 players battling for just 4 qualifying spots. Corey O’Rourke of St.John’s and Galway’s Robbie Gavin appear to be the early favourites, although there are lots of dark horses sprinkled throughout the draw, from the experienced Brian Devereux, Dave Pemberton and Anthony Redmond, to top Junior  players such as Kevin O’Keefe, Stephen Slater and Shi Zhao Li. Maciek Syzmanski, who featured recently at the Senior Schools International, will also be one to watch.

In the Women’s event, again it’s wide open. Sabina Devereux is the favourite to progress, but with only two spots available the pressure is really on. Jean Wyse and Teresa Devanney are well versed in these competitions and there will be some exciting match-ups against emerging talents such as Katie and Elayna McGlone.

Final Event – Men

Drawn in Group A, much focus will be on the form of National Number 1 Paul McCreery. He is drawn against Junior internationals Sam Logue and Ashley Robinson, 2009 National Champion Gavin Maguire, international team-mate Keith Knox and Eastpoint’s Mark O’Flynn. There can be no doubt that McCreery is the favourite to win this completion and improve on his 2^nd place finish last season. However, this is a tough group, which will be rounded out by the 1^st and 4^th Qualifiers from Saturday’s event.

In Group B, John Murphy, 3 times National Senior Champion will also be looking to get his domestic campaign off to a flying start. He faces last year’s beaten semi-finalist Conor Nolan, Daniel Keenan, Peter Graham and Munster youngster Declan O’Brien. Ryan Flood will look to put up a challenge as will 2 qualifiers from Saturday’s event.

Both groups should see some spectacular matches and will represent a real test of how well the players have trained during the Summer break.

 Final Event – Women

The Final event of the Women’s Classification will see the 6 automatic qualifiers joined by the 2 best Saturday players. Everybody in the Irish table tennis community will be delighted to see the return of Amanda Mogey and Claire Nelson to tournament play after both suffered lengthy injury lay-offs last season. In their absence, Ashley Givan dominated, taking the Women’s Senior National title and finishing as top ranked Cadet, Junior and Senior player in the country. They willbe joined by Rita Kacsandi, last year’s Classification winner and Connacht’s ever-improving Junior international Sarah Timlin.

Click here for Qualifying Draw.

With thanks to Tournament Referee Tony Martin and the ITTA Events Committee for providing this information.

Following some impressive performances, Paul McCreery’s European Youth Championships finally came to an end against Jonathan Groth of Denmark in the Round of 32. It was yet another impressive performance from McCreery following a breakthrough season from the Ulster player. Unfortunately, Groth was in top form on the day and took a 4:1 win to progress to play the top seed and eventual champion Patrick Franziska of Germany. In the consolation event, Sam Logue recorded some good wins over Austrian and Slovenian opponents before being eliminated in the last 32.