Posts in category: International Events

On Tuesday 6 April 2021 it is World Table Tennis Day. We at Table Tennis Ireland are celebrating World Table Tennis Day with a Women in Sport event, which will be done at home and virtually due to the global pandemic Covid-19.  This event is during school holidays, schools are on Easter Holidays for this event.

We are a promoter of the World Table Tennis Day, in conjunction with an ITTF Foundation initiative, promoting gender equality to empower all women and girls by contributing to FEMpowerment through Table Tennis. 

This event will be a fun filled day hosted by our female club members, players and coaches. Throughout the day there will be trick shots demonstrated by some of our top female players with some fun competitions to win some cool Table Tennis and Women in Sport prizes.  

We are also hosting a live webinar during the day with our coaches and top female players. There can only be 100 attendees at our live webinar, but don’t worry if you can’t make it! The webinar will be recorded so you can watch it back on our website whenever you would like.       

Check out our video on why you should join us on World Table Tennis Day for our women in sport event. Thank you to Rachael Scott, Rachel Taylor, Amanda Taylor, Thuy Linh Cashman, Rebecca Finn, Lucy Craig, Lucy Johnson and Nicole Scott for their involvement in this video.

Please keep your eyes peeled for further updates on https://tabletennisireland.ie/ and our various social medias; Twitter https://twitter.com/tabletennisire , Instagram https://www.instagram.com/tabletennisireland/, and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TableTennisIreland/ to hear from our players about all things Table Tennis. 

We would like to wish Paul McCreery the best of luck this weekend playing in the Word Ping Pong Masters in The Ricoh Arena, Coventry, January 23rd – 24th

World Ping Pong Masters brings 24 of the world’s best ping pong players to battle for their share of a prize fund which stands at $102,000. The format is straight-knockout, matches are best of 5 from the Last 16 onwards and the popular Golden Buzzer Power Play returns!

Watch the World Ping Pong Masters, live on Sky Sports Mix from midday on Saturday, January 23 to see Paul in action. Table tennis is a world-known sport but switching to a hardbat allows for a different strategy of the game, slower shots and potentially longer rallies affording better viewership to a casual sports fan as well as excitement for the younger generation to look upon.

Join in to see the action this weekend, and see more action like this from Paul https://twitter.com/matchroompp/status/1352186974879297536?s=24

Keep up to date on the tournament by clicking this link http://worldpingpongmasters.com/tournament/

Best of Luck Paul from all at Table Tennis Ireland!! 

Table Tennis Ireland are delighted to announce that Sophie Earley has been invited to attend the Europe Youth Top-10 tournament, which takes place in Berlin from the 9th to 12th of October. Sophie is currently ranked 2nd in Europe and 8th in the World as a Cadet. We would like to wish Sophie and her coach, Keith Knox, all the best next month in Germany.

Ireland’s Sophie Earley, 14, has burst onto the scene with a stunning show at cadet level in Europe and with the help of Sport Ireland, ITTF has managed to gain some added insight into the teenage prodigy’s journey so far.

https://www.ittf.com/2020/07/30/sophie-earley-irelands-next-flag-bearer/

We would like to wish the following players the very best of luck at next months Primary Schools International:

Boys – Senan Sheridan, Matthew Mooney, Bruce Tan, Daniel McFaul

Girls – Anjali Singh, Grace Looney, Niamh Mason, Ruta Milute.

The teams will be supported by coaches Gervis Knox and Keith Knox.

Owen defeated top French player Dorian Zheng 4-2 (11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-9) in the Final, a tremendous result over the top seed, and a top 10 European Junior who had won all of their previous encounters.

The top Ormeau TTC Junior, now playing full-time in Sweden, was in fine form throughout the event, only dropping one set in the knockout stages.  That was in the semi-finals when he beat 5th seed Angel Naranjo (Puerto Rico) 4-1 (10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9, 11-3).  Naranjo had earlier defeated Owen’s teammate and doubles partner Borgar Haug 4-2.

Owen won 4-0 against Suresh Raj (India) in the last 16, and again 4-0 against Tsyhanouski (Belarus), showing the impressive form that was to come in the semis and the final.

However there was disappointment for Owen in the doubles with Borgar Haug when they lost out in the quarter final to Simonsen and Skarsholm (Denmark) in a close encounter 11-13, 11-6, 8-11, 10-12, just one step away from another medal.

See ITTF article on Owen’s great win here: https://www.ittf.com/2020/02/21/owen-cathcart-prithika-pavade-win-orebro/

Partnered by Welsh player Anna Hursey, Sophie reached the final of the Girls Junior Doubles losing to Russian players and winning a Silver Medal. In the Cadet Girls Team event, again partnered by Anna plus a Portuguese player, Sophie won a bronze medal after losing in the Semi Finals to the winning Russian team in a close match.

The Cadet Girls Doubles brought further success for Sophie.  She reached the Semi finals again partnered by Welsh player Anna Hursey losing in straight sets to Chinese TPE pair, LIAO and LIN.  Another Bronze medal!

Sophie’s last event of her trip was the Cadet Girls Singles where she reached the quarter finals losing to Chinese TPE player LIAO Ting – Yao 3/2 in a high quality match.

With a medal total of 1 Silver and 2 Bronze it was a successful trip!

The World Championship of Ping Pong, also known as WCPP, is an annual ping pong event  promoted by English sports impresario Barry Hearn, using old-fashioned wooden racquets covered with sandpaper, instead of the high tech rubber of  modern table tennis. This results in longer and more entertaining rallies.

The hugely popular event featured 4 Irish players:  Paul McCreery, Gavin Maguire, Zak Wilson and young Jonny Mooney (currently ranked Irish joint No 2 Cadet).

From the start, Paul McCreery  was in simply outstanding form and delighted his Irish and PWC fans with two 2-0 victories over Mlynarski (Poland) and Milchin (Germany) to reach the last 32 draw and the knockout stages.  There he met the highly rated Russian Dmitrij Bobrov, and defeated him 2-1, with the TV cameras switching from the TV table to cover the final points of the match.  Paul won 15-12, 4-15, 15-13, which led to the “pitch invasion” by his fans!  Last 16 accomplished!

Paul then faced seasoned Ping Pong campaigner Martin Groenewold (Netherlands), who came with strong Dutch support.  Paul produced a great display which featured what the TV commentators called the “rally of the tournament”, winning 15-6, 15-11. Quarter final place accomplished! 

It was then all eyes on the match between Gavin Rumgay (Scotland) and Benjamin Sorensen (Denmark) to see who Paul would face for a place in the semi-finals!   Gavin Rumgay pulled everything out to take this match 15-14 in the decider. 

Paul may have wished for the Danish opponent, having been training with Gavin Rumgay leading up to these Championships.  The match went in Rumgay’s favour, in a nerve-wracking match 2-1.   Well done to Paul in achieving his first quarter-final, and the feeling is that there is more to come…

Gavin Maguire was very unfortunate not to make the last 32, losing to Peejay Atienza (PHI) 15-14 in the decider, and taking a win over Italian player, Gallina.  He then faced Martin Groenewold (Netherlands) losing again by the narrowest of margins 15-14 in 3rd.

Zak Wilson lost 2-0 to Bobrov (Russia) and 2-1 to Maybanks (Hungary) in his group and was eliminated.   14 year old Jonny Mooney drew the attention of the TV cameras, but was also eliminated, losing to Chris Doran (England) and England’s top Junior, Ethan Walsh.

In the Semis, Alex Flemming (Germany) defeated Gavin Rumgay 15-4, 15-9, while Champion Andrew Baggaley (3 times winner) advanced to the Final with a win over Liang Xue (China).

The stage was set for what was to become the greatest WCPP Final ever, with Baggaley winning the event (for the 4th time!)  14-15, 15-8, 14-15, 15-8, 15-14. With some rallies exceeding 40 strokes, the players fought to the end, with nothing between them, as the scoreline shows!

Roll on next year!