Posts in category: International Events

Ulster’s Paul McCreery and Claire Nelson won the Band 1 Men’s Singles and the Under 21 Girl’s Singles respectively at the prestigious Bristol Grand Prix, which is part of the English Grand Prix Circuit against a very strong field of players.

Paul McCreery raced through to the semi-finals in the Band 1 Singles where he beat the talented Mike Marsden  and ran out a worthy 3-1 winner. His opponent in the final was Zac Zilesnick who earlier had finished 2^nd in the Band 2 Event.  In the fifth set of this match McCreery upped his level and his intensity to win 11-8 and showed why he is regarded as one of the top juniors in the UK. Dubliner Gavin Maguire performed well to reach the semi finals of this event before losing to Zilesnick.

In the Men’s Singles McCreery also had a magnificent run to the semi finals defeating Lewis Williams, Sean Cullen and the highly ranked David McBeath (who had in the previous round knocked out 3^rd seeded Niall Cameron at the last eight stage to set up a semi final confrontation with eventual winner Po Huang Chen (Chinese Taipei).  After an excellent match with many fantastic rallies, Chen completed a 3-1 victory. Po Chen went on to win the event after a hard fought win against English man Damien Nicholls.

Claire Nelson was also impressive, winning the Under 21 Girls after a series of hard fought victories with impressive 5 set wins over Angharad Phillips, Melissa Wright and Yolanda King to set up a final showdown with Natalie Slater. The final lived up to expectations with the pendulum of power swinging one way then the other. Claire clawed her way back into the match after trailing 1-2 in sets to turn it around in her favour after some devastating play to win 11-6 in the fifth.

Amanda Mogey had an excellent run to the semi finals in the Women’s Singles, with good wins over Melissa Wright, Vicky Smith and Sally Smith to reach the semi-final stage. In the semi-final with Welsh number 1 Naomi Owen a shock looked possible when Amanda won the first set. However Naomi won the next three sets after some enthralling rallies to book her place in the final which she won defeating Egle Adomelyte.

Dublin player Ryan Flood recorded a series of fine wins to take the Band 4 Men’s Singles event, beating Matt Rogers, Scott Cundy and Lee Morgan to reach the final.  In the final he beat Welsh player, Lewis Williams, 3/1.

Mark McGuiggan in his first ever English Grand Prix tournament did well to finish 2^nd in Band 6, and will have learnt a lot from watching and competing with such a high calibre of players. Keith Knox also played well in reaching the quarter-finals of the Under 21 Men’s Singles.

The ITTA has today announced squads for a number of international events. Congratulations to all selected:

Finlandia Open, Helsinki

Men’s Teams:       Ireland A:  John Murphy, Conor Nolan

                        Ireland B:   Paul Mc Creery, Sam Hanley

Women’s Teams:    Ireland:     Amanda Mogey, Claire Nelson

Stockton-on-Tees 4 Star

Cadet Boys Ireland:   Ryan Farrell, Neil Irwin
Cadet Girls Ireland:    Ashley Givan, Edel OReilly
 
Under 13 Girls (Cadet Girls Team) Ireland: Katie McGlone, Elayna McGlone

The top class clash of greatest stars of today the Euro-Asia All Stars Event gave enormous joy and pride  for the Old Continent. In the second leg in Istanbul, Europe won 5:6 on aggregate. In the process, Timo BOLL beat the best-ranked player in the World, Chinese star WANG Hao. The thriller, the suspense, the highest level of game, team spirit and beautiful points in front of thousands of spectators in Istanbul’s crowded hall were shared with millions people in front of TV all over the Europe and World. Thanks to  Eurosport and 15 TV stations, the picture has been seen all over the planet.

On the first day, Asian side had a close victory and they went to the rest with the 3:2 lead. In the proceedings, on the second day, in the grueling duels Europe had the same result. Thus, the additional match has been needed. The decision who will play the 11th match was made by the lot. Two captains draw the players and the battle continued in true thrilling atmosphere. The decider was on Vladimir SAMSONOV chests. He faced the challenge and beat LI Ching. Europe won, and saved the pride of the Continent. On the first leg in Beijing last summer it was Asia who succeeded with narrow 6:4 win. “I surprise myself a bit, not so much with the win against WANG Hao but with the result. I could not even hope that I will win in straight games,” said Timo BOLL. German star succeeded against WANG and Vladimir SAMSONOV gave the final touch : “I felt something special here in Istanbul. We build the team spirit and I wanted to win so much against LI Ching in additional match. The victory was sweet, but the feeling that I get when I saw the other players jumped from their seats, it overwhelmed me,” admitted SAMSONOV.  

President of the ETTU Stefano BOSI was thrilled after great success of the European team:
“The Euro-Asia All Stars Series was the fantastic event. We had the top-level game and enough tension to keep the spectators on fire from first to the last match. Top of the class was the mach that Timo BOLL played against WANG Hao. I define this match as a perfect one. It was the perfect mixture of aggressive play, of big heart, focus and power. It was great to watch this match,” said President BOSI.

The Next European step will be played in Belgium on October 12th and 13th, 2010.

European leg of the Euro-Asia All Stars Event in Istanbul 
Europe – Asia 6:5 on aggregate
 
Day One
 
Europe – Asia 2:3 
 
Kalinikos KREANGA – GAO Ning 1:3 (11:8, 8:11, 10:12, 6:11)
Michael MAZE – LI Ching 3:1 (11:9, 11:9, 9:11, 11:9)
Vladimir SAMSONOV – WANG Hao 1:3 (5:11, 11:4, 9:11, 10:12)
Timo BOLL – JOO Se Hyuk 3:2 (11:6, 11:4, 4:11, 10:12, 11:4)
Werner SCHLAGER – CHUANG Chih Yuan 0:3 (9:11, 6:11, 10:12).
 
Day Two 
 
Europe – Asia 4:2 
 
 Werner SCHLAGER – LI Ching 3:1 (9:11, 11:5, 11:5, 11:7)
 Kalinikos KREANGA – CHUANG Chih Yuan 1:3 (11:7, 7:11, 11:13, 5;11)
 Vladimir SAMSONOV – JOO Se Hyuk 3:1 (11:8, 8:11, 11;7, 11:9)
 Timo BOLL – WANG Hao 3:0 (11:6, 11:7, 11:6)
 Michale MAZE – GAO Ning 1:3 (9:11, 11:3, 13:15, 9:11)
Additional match 
 Vladimir SAMSONOV – LI Ching 3:1 (11:8, 4:11, 11:9, 12:10).

Reproduced with Thanks to ETTU

Fatih Sport Complex in Istanbul awaits the greatest superstars of today’s table tennis at the second Leg of Euro Asia All Star Series. World’s best ranked player China’s WANG Hao will be at the front of the Asian side that will challenge the Europeans led by the Old Continent’s no. 1 German Timo BOLL. The Event in Turkey is scheduled for the November 10th and 11th.

In the European team, BOLL will play alongside Vladimir SAMSONOV of Belarus, Michale MAZE of Denmark, Werner SCHLAGER of Austria, Kalinikos KREANGA of Greece. Gencay MENGE received wild card as a host nation representative. Turkish player will play two exhibition matches on both competition days.

The Asian team coach CHAN Kong Wah from Hong Kong , beside the Chinese superstar WANG Hao, invited JOO See Yuk of Korea, CHUANG Chih Yuan of Taipei, Hong Kong’s LI Ching and GAO Ning of Singapore.

In Beijing on first Leg of the Euro Asia Event, Europe lost 6:4 (on aggregate) in August. Michael MAZE of Denmark and Dimitrij OVTCHAROV of Germany won two matches each. This time Timo BOLL is confident that Europe’s team can do even better.

“Vladi is back after the World Cup, Michael is strong and Kalin, Werner and I try as well our best. We have a good team,” said the player who proved so many times before that he is equal to the Chinese superstars. 

Pan European sport channel EUROPSORT will cover the two days event. On first day coverage will last two hours from 5.30 PM to 7.30 PM, next day the coverage starts at 5 pm and ends at 7 pm CET. The unforgettable inauguration stage of the Euro Asia All Star Series Event at the Bospforus Bridge this summer in Istanbul was fantastic experience that moved the table tennis sport boundaries. Return to the city where East meets the West in November with such heavy list of superstars promising another fantastic journey.

The Junior Girls team of Ashley Givan, Sara Dolan, Sara Timlin and Edel O’Reilly performed magnificently to top their group against some very strong opposition. What’s interesting about this team is that each girl represents a different province, with all the 4 provinces of Ireland being represented.

All the girls contributed to put in an excellent team display. Performance of the weekend went to Ashley Givan who beat the highly rated English U13 number 1 Tin Tin Ho 3-0. Ashley also showed fantastic composure coupled with great play when she was 7-10 down in the fifth against Vicky Smith from Bridge Club, and came back to win 13-11. Ashley, still only 14 years old played at number 1 the whole weekend and won a fantastic 9 out of 10 matches. Edel O’Reilly in her first outing in this competition performed brilliantly winning 4 out of 4, scoring a very good win against the highly ranked Tressa Armitage. Edel is still a cadet and has many more years in this competition to come.

Sarah Timlin has vastly improved recently and had an excellent never say die attitude all weekend, coming back from several setand match points down to win many tight fifth setters. Sarah can be very proud winning 6 of her 8 matches in her first outing at this tournament. Sara Dolan in her last year as a junior also performed well to beat Tressa Armitage and was unlucky to lose several matches in the 5^th set.

 The team currently lead by one point with the nearest challenger being DHS Greenhouse Progress 1 and have put themselves in an excellent position to challenge for honours in the final weekend of this competition.

Amanda Mogey(NPC)

A young Irish cadet squad travelled to Bridlington on the English east coast over the weekend, to compete in the East Yorkshire Cadet Open – a 4 star ranked tournament – which attracted over 100 players, including some of the top Cadet players from England, Scotland and Wales.

The squad consisting of the BoysTeam of Ryan Farrell, Neil Irwin, Kevin Hutchinson and Johnny Porter and Girls Team of Sarah Cooney, Katie McGlone, Elayna McGlone and Orla Timlin was largely a developmental squad that included players that will have another 1,2,3 or in some cases, a further 4 years at the Cadet level. Under the direction of the NPC’s Shay Logue and Louise Long, and the ITTA’s Technical Director, John O’Donoghue, the players had the opportunity to compete against some of the top UK Cadets, and the experience and information gathered over the weekend will be invaluable in their future training programme.

The highlight of the weekend proved to be Katie McGlone’s performance on Saturday in the U12 singles where the 9 year old finished runner up to the number 1 seed and English Champion, Tin Tin Ho. The prospect of playing England’s finest did not faze the talented Katie, who displayed a spirited performance , but was defeated by the experienced Tin Tin. This was Katie’s only defeat during the event, which included an impressive win over the number 2 seed, Emily Bolton.
The Irish did not compete in the U12 Boys event, which was won by the Scottish 10 year old wizzard, Christopher Wheeler.

The Cadet Team event pitched the 4 Irish teams against strong opposition in the group stages, and despite some spirited performances from Neil Irwin and Sarah Cooney, with some 15 deuce games that went against the Irish, the teams did not progress to the knockout stages. The Boys event was won by DHS Greenhouse who surprised by beating the English number 1 team, while the Girls event was completely dominated by England, who included the talented Cathy Bates.

In the Cadet Girls Singles on Sunday, competition was very strong for the younger and inexperienced Irish players.
The event was won by Tressa Armitage who defeated Jessica Dawson 3-1 in the final.

In the Cadet Boys Singles, Sam Walker (Eng) validated his number 1 seeding by beating Igor Morais (Greenhouse) in an exciting final on the scoreline of 3-1.
Best of the Irish boys was Ryan Farrell who progressed from his group to the knockout stages, where he met Ashley Facey-Thompson.
Despite taking the first set with some attacking forehand winners, Ryan was beaten to the last 16 on a score of 1-3 with tight set scores of 9, 9 and 8.

Overall, the standard of this event and quality of the players will prove to be an invaluable experience for these young Irish Cadets, and will provide the NPC’s and Technical Director with a solid benchmark with which to assess their progress in future events.

Gratitude to Shay Logue and Louise Long – NPC’s for the weekend, and to Butterfly, our Official Equipment Sponsor to the National Tea