Posts in category: International Events

Sunday 4th October saw the individual event of the Senior 6 Nations. The highlight for the Irish was Amanda Mogey who claimed a bronze medal following some excellent performances. Mogey was drawn against Irish team-mate Claire Nelson in the quarter-finals and the pair who are so familiar with each others games played out 5 sets of fascinating table tennis, with Mogey eventually claiming a semi-final spot with some assured play in the final set.  In the semi-final she came up against England’s Hannah Hicks, who had knocked out Irish youngster Ashley Givan in the quarter final. Givan at her first Senior 6 Nations will be delighted with her last 8 finish, and still a Cadet, she looks to have a glittering career in the game ahead. Mogey took the first set of a closely fought semi-final, but Hicks asserted her authority to take the next 3 sets and progress.

Best for the Irish Men was John Murphy, who also progressed to tje last 8. Here he had a tough opponent in Craig Howieson. Murphy took a 2-1 sets lead and looked on course to make the semi-final. However, Howieson fought back with some clever spin and explosive forehands to eventually bring the game to a final set, where he dominated to win 11-4 and progress. Other notable Irish performances was from veteran Brian Fitzgerald, who took a silver medal in the consolation event.

Key Irish Results

Mens QF: J.Murphy v C.Howieson: 8-11, 14-12, 11-9, 5-11, 4-11

Womens QF: A.Mogey v C.Nelson: 7-11, 11-9, 11-7, 7-11, 11-8

Womens SF: A.Mogey v H.Hicks: 11-9, 5-11, 8-11, 11-13

In the Mens final, 16 year old Liam Pitchford from England produced a sensational performance to defeat odd-on favourite Ryan Jenkins of Wales. Pitchford from England is a full time player with the English squad based in Sheffield and he was tenacious throughout, belying his inexperience to take his first major Senior International title. In the Ladies event, Naomi Owen was peerless as she stormed through to the Final, taking the Final by 3-0 to claim the Senior 6 Nations title.

Final Results

Mens Final Winner: Liam Pitchford(England bt Ryan Jenkins(wales): 11-4, 7 -11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9

Womens Final Winner: Naomi Owen(Wales) bt H.Hicks England 3-0(11-5, 11-9, 11-3)

The Senior 6 Nations Table tennis Championships got off to an explosive start at DCU on Friday night following an Opening Ceremony led by Dublin’s Lord Mayor Emer Costello.  Ireland’s men couldn’t have asked for a tougher start, coming up first against one of the tournament favourites Wales.

With the Jenkins brothers leading the Welsh, this was always going to be a difficult match for this Irish team, blending a mix of experience in Brian Fitzgerald and John Murphy and youth in promising talents Sam Hanley and Gavin Maguire. Murphy was first into action for the Irish, taking on Steven Jenkins – Jenkins eventually triumphing after a thrilling 5 set match. This was a topsy-turvy affair from start to finish, Murphy was able to level the match at 2-2 with a great display of attacking table tennis in front of a supportive home crowd, but this was not enough to prevent Jenkins taking the match. National champion Maguire was next in action against Ryan Jenkins who showed his class to take a 3-0 win. Fitzgerald and Murphy then lost the Doubles and Wales emerged 3-0 victors. Ireland then had 2 games against Isle of Man and Guernsey, with Sam Hanley and Brian Fitzgerald getting some match time to come through both matches on a 3-0 scoreline.The crucial games were to come on Saturday against England and Scotland.

Against the English, Murphy and Maguire were selected for the Irish and they certainly did not let favourites England have things their own way. Murphy took a set of Pitchford who would later go on to claim the singles prize, before Maguire almost pulled off a major shock, taking Darius Knight to a 5th set before fading. Knight and Pitchford cmbined well in the Doubles, leaving Ireland with a match against the Scots for the bronze medal. This was an intriguing contest and Murphy gave the Irish the early initiative, defeating Niall Cameron in 4 sets. Maguire was next up and he faced Howieson. Maguire took the 1st set but Howieson fought back to eventually claim the match 3-1. Brian Fitzgerald was paired with Murphy for the Doubles, but in a tight and nervy Doubles contest, the Scots took the match leaviing Murphy to play to keep the Irish in contention for bronze. Unfortunately, Howieson was too strong for the Dubliner and Scotland took the bronze, leaving Ireland in 4th position.

In the Women’s event, Ireland also had a tough challenge in their first game against the Welsh. Amanda Mogey is the top ranked player for the Irish and she was in dominant form taking her match against Angharad Phillips, but this was not enough to prevent the Welsh from recording a 3-1 victory. Wales, driven by the top ranked player in the event, Naomi Owen looked ominously strong. Cadet Ashley Givan and Chesire based Fiona Dennett were introduced for the Isle of Man game and did not let anyone down, claiming a 3-0 victory. Coach Brett reverted to Mogey and Claire Nelson for the Guernsey game in the Singles and they delivered the match, despite Mogey dropping a match to Kay Chivers. So similar to the Men, the Women had critical matches against England and Wales. Again Mogey and Nelson were called into action and they did not disappoint. Following a loss to England, the Ladies regrouped and showed immense talend and maturity to dominate the Scottish match, losing in the Doubles but dominating the singles. This victory secured bronze for the team(pictured with supporter above).

With Ireland playing Scotland for Bronze in both the Mens and Womens event, it was a similar story in the battle for Gold, with England and Wales both in contention. In the Mens, Darius Knight was in top form, defeating both Ryan and Steven Jenkins to deliver Gold for England. In the Womens event, Naomi Owen showed her class in a similar fashion, taking her 2 singles and assisting in a Doubles win to claim gold for Wales.

ITTA Technical Director John O’Donoghues was satisfied with some of the Irish performances over the weekend, stating;

“Overall, it was a good weekend for our developing young teams. Amanda Mogey in particular playes very well to repeat her bronze medal success of last year, and was unfortunate in her semi-final against Hannah Hicks. We are disappointed not to have taken bronze in the Mens event, but the players will have learned from this experience as we build for the future”

All in all, it was a superb weekend of table tennis in DCU. Many thanks to tournament referee Karen Tonge MBE, Tony Martin and all of their Umpires for their hard work over the weekend. Also thanks to our event sponsors and volunteers who helped make this a memorable weekend for players and spectators.

In their first Senior European Championships, National Senior Champion Gavin Maguire and National Junior Champion Sam Hanley were the last Irish players standing in the 2nd Round of the Men’s Singles Championships. Both faced difficult opponent in the 2nd Round, with Hanley first up against the Swede Robert Svensson and Maguire against Daniel Habesohn of Austria. Habesohn proved to have too much quality for the Maguire taking the match 4 : 0  (7 8 6 1). Habesohn is ranked in the top 100 in Europe and Maguire will have learned some valuable lessons from this match.

Hanley faced an even more difficult task, coming up against the Swede who is ranked 54 in Europe. With Maguire and Hanley hovering around the 600 mark in the European rankings, their challenge was obvious. However, Hanley caused some consternation in the Svensson camp levelling the match at 1:1. Ultimately, Svensson’s experience at this level eventually proved telling and he progressed 4 : 1  (6 -7 2 5 3).

A full summary of the championship with player and coach reaction will follow in the coming days…

Following an initial defeat to Lithuania., the Butterfly sponsored Irish team grew in strength and defeated all of the other teams in Group J, including an impressive win over Armenia. Ken Strong is the ITTA Delegate at the Europeans and he described the performance against Armenia as “a particularly focused and awesome display by our young players, capably led by John Murphy and expertly coached by Peter Nilsson”. For Sam Hanley, National Junior Champion and Gavin Maguire, National Senior Champion at 18 years of age, this tournament has been a tremendous experience to date and both have grown stronger and gained more confidence since the first match with Lithuania. With four wins in a row, the Irish progressed to the Promotion Play-Offs.

First up in the play-offs was a strong Netherlands team. The Irish fought hard against their more experienced opponents, but the Dutch took the match on a 3:0 score line. That left the team with one match to secure promotion and perhaps gain revenge over the Lithuanians. With everything at stake, the Lithuanians surged into an early lead with Maguire and Murphy losing to Martinkus and Domeika respectively. The Irish did not lie down however, and  Sam Hanley produced a fantastic performance to defeat Udra and Murphy levelling the tie at 2:2 against Martinkus. That left Maguire in the pressure-cooker situation of having to defeat Domeika to secure promotion. This looked a tall order but Maguire produced some scintillating table tennis to take the match to 5 sets and was unfortunate to eventually lose the final set 12:10 having saved 3 match points.

Ireland then just missed out on promotion but showed encouraging signs and great battling qualities.

In today’s Singles, John Murphy lost in the First Round against Denmark’s Ka Sternberg 4:1. Sam Hanley progressed to the 2^nd Round with a 4:2 victory over Tentoni from San Marino. He will face Sweden’s Robert Svensson in tomorrow’s 2^nd Round. Gavin Maguire defeated Bosnia’s Alec 4:2 in an epic encounter

and will face Austrian Daniel Habesohn in tomorrow’s 2^nd Round. These are two fantastic results from Hanley and Maguire in their first Senior Europeans and we wish them all the best in their 2^nd Round games tomorrow.

In the Doubles event, Maguire is partnered with Finn Toni Soine – they produced an excellent win in the 1^st Round, defeating a Kosovan duo and will now face OVTCHAROV and STEGER of Germany in the 2^nd Round. Hanley and Murphy lost out to a Slovenian duo in the 1^st Round.

It was another successful UK Schools Games for the Ulster squad that travelled to Wales for this multi-sport event. In particular, Paul McCreery had a fantastic tournament, defeating David McBeath in the Individual Final to become UK Schools Champion. In the Team event, the Boys finished an excellent second, with McCreery again in top form, ably assisted by an in-form Ashley Robinson, Stephen Slater, Stephen Halpin and Neil Irwin. Robinson had also progressed to the last 16, but just lost out on a place in the quarter-finals to Sean Cullen, who he had previously defeated in the Team event. For the girls squad of Ashley Givan, Annalise Walker, Roisin O’Reilly and Emma Ludlow, the event was a tough one, but this young squad will have learned from the experience and are sure to challenge as they gain in experience.

Irish Junior Boys Paul McCreery from Ulster and Sam Hanley of Eastpoint TTC and Leinster have today caused a major shock at the European Youth Championships by knocking out the seeded Hungarian team to progress to the last 32. The Hungarians were overwhelming favourites coming into the game, with PEREI, Gergel(Ranked 28 in Europe) and PALATINUS, Martin(ranked 66 in Europe)  significantly higher ranked than the Irish pair. The Irish duo combined brilliantly however, to dominate their opponents who struggled to deal with the quality of McCreery and Hanley’s short game. The Irish took the game in straight sets against the former European Cadet Doubles silver medallists, winning 3:0(5, 6, 11).

Their focus will now switch to this evening’s last 32 game against the Swedish duo ANDERSSON, Harald and TRAN, Anthony. Again these players are ranked 34 and 21 in Europe and are part of the Swedish Team that made the Junior Team Final. Speaking about the result, Sam Hanley was thrilled with the performance;

“Myslef and Paul are really starting to play well together now and we are delighted with the result and the performance. We have watched the Swedish duo, who are obviously very talented players. However, they tend to drop off the table a little and we would hope to exploit this with our short game. We have got used to the O2 Arena now and think we have a fighting chance this evening”

ITTA Technical Director John O’Donoghue expressed his views on the duo’s progress, stating

“Paul and Sam have done brilliantly well to defeat the always strong Hungarians – to progress to the last 32 of a major European competition is a significant achievent for the boys – who knows they may yet feature in the last 16 Draw tomorrow”

On behalf of all Irish Table Tennis supporters, we wish the guys the best of luck this evening and hopefully into tomorrow.

Paul McCreery produced a performance full of determination and quality in progressing to the 3rd Round of the Junior Singles this morning in Prague. Strorming into an early 3-0 set lead against Kirstian Dalia of Serbia, McCreery looked to be in complete control of the match. But Dalea is significantly higher in the European rankings and began his comeback, taking the next 3 sets(8, 4, 8) to set up a deciding set. McCreery showed great resolve in the final set, winning 11-8 to take a surprise victory. He now moves into the last 64, where he faces CHODORSKI, Piotr of Poland who is ranked 6 in Europe. This 3rd Round match takes place at 6pm this evening.

Other results today have not gone the way of the Irish squad, with Hanley, Robinson, Nelson and Givan all knocked out of their Singles events at the 2nd Round stage to higher ranked opponents. No doubt the team will rally behind McCreery this evening in his 3rd Round match.