Posts in category: National Events

TEAM

The Irish Under 14 Girls were the top performers within the Irish squad this weekend at the Senior Schools International hosted by Guernsey. Recording some excellent victories, including a 3:2 victory over England A, the team of Hannah Lynch-Dawson and Elayna McGlone took the Team Silver Medal. Joining them on the rostrum was the Under 18 Girls team of Ashley Givan and Sarah Timlin. Both Boys teams made the 3/4th place play off, with Declan O’Brien and Stephen Slater narrowly missing out on bronze following a tight 3:2 defeat by Wales, while  Jersey ended the Under 14 Boys medal chances. Team coaches were Louise Long and John Murphy.

SINGLES

Under 14 Girls: Hannah Lynch-Dawson and Elayna McGlone were again both on form, with both cruising in to the Quarter Finals. McGlone faced a tough match against eventual winner Emily Bolton of England and was beaten in straight sets. Lynch-Dawson defeated Laura Edward in the QF before producing an excellent performance to beat Letitia McMullan to qualify for the Final in a thrilling five-set semi. In the Final, she ran into Emily Bolton – despite pushing her to deuce in the first two sets it was not to be and she claimed a silver medal. Hannah had recorded a good win over Bolton in the Team event and performed superbly over the course of the weekend.

Under 16 Boys: Both Ryan Farrell and Kevin Hutchinson qualified from their groups to the last 16. Hutchinson faced Daryl Gee of England and was eliminated at this stage. Farrell progressed with a fine win over Ronan McDonnell, recovering from a dropped first set to dominate. He then faced Ryan Oyler of Wales in the Quarter Final – a tough draw and it proved too much for Farrell – Oyler went on to claim a silver medal.

Under 18 Boys: A similar tale in the Under 18 Boys, with Declan O’Brien and Stephen Slater both progressing from their groups. Slater fell at the last 16 against Bradley Tuttle in straight sets, while O’Brien was just pipped in a classic Quarter Final against Matthew Outhwaite of England having won his group to claim a last 8 place.

Under 18 Girls: Ashley Givan and Sarah Timlin again both qualified from their groups to the knock-out stage – meaning that all 8 Irish players at the event played in the Main Rounds of the competition. Unfortunately, the team-mates were drawn against each other in the Quarter Finals with Givan progressing. Givan met Anghared Phillips of Wales in the semi-final and lost out to the eventual tournament winner – enough still to record a bronze medal.

Congratulations to Guardian Angels who won the girls, and Scoil Eoin winners of the boys competition at last weeks All Ireland Primary Schools finals.  Click here to view full results

A thrilling STIGA Junior Interpros took place in IWA Hall, Clontarf this weekend. With a full entry across all categories from each province, tough competition was anticipated – but nobody could have anticipated the dramatic finale to some of the events. Words cannot really describe what an extraordinary atmosphere we had on Saturday. There was high quality play in abundance and several matches going to deuce in the 5th. Home Team Leinster(pictured) eventually emerged with the Victor Barna Shield for overall winners – a fantastic achievement for the province as Ulster had been dominant in recent years.

Juniors

Ulster claimed the Junior Girls title, but not without having an extraordinary battle for the title with Munster. Both teams dispatched Connacht and Leinster with little difficulty to set up the decider. With the match tied at 3:3, the much anticipated battle between Ashley Givan and Edel O’Reilly took place, with Givan claiming a straight sets victory to edge Ulster ahead. Emma Ludlow then sealed the match and the title for the Ulster team with a good victory over Emily Burns.

In the Junior Boys, Leinster claimed the title. Recovering from 3:1 down against Munster, wins for Ryan Farrell, Shi Zhao Li and Conor Mullally inspired a 6:3 victory. They also controlled the match against Ulster, with Matt Final coming in to the team and recording some good wins. The team showed its strength in depth with Ciaran Kelly playing in the final match against Connacht, with Leinster comfortably claiming the title.

Cadets

Both Cadet titles were also split between Ulster and Leinster. In the Girls event, Laura Finn, Hannah Lynch-Dawson, Rebecca Finn and Elizabeth Cathcart were superb on the day and never looked likely to lose the title with comfortable wins over Connacht and Leinster to set up a final match with Munster. At 3:3, Laura Finn stepped up to beat Brielle Brady and Lynch Dawson clinched the title in straight sets over Chloe O’Halloran.

In the Cadet Boys, Leinster went 4:0 down to Ulster in the before coming back to win 5:4 with the final match between Tom Davis and Jonathan Porter going to the final, nail biting game. Tom Davis drew on all his ability to clinch the last game 11:8 –  this game not only decided this event but also, ultimately the destination of the overall Shield. The hall virtually stopped to watch this fiercely dramatic encounter even with other matches still going on.

Under 12

If the Cadets event did not have sufficient drama for the fans, there was further heart stopping drama around 9.30pm when every other match had already finished. This was in the Boys Under 12 between Leinster and Connacht when the last match was decided deuce in the 5th. Martin Williams defied the rankings to produce a smashing display of finesse, nerve and battling skills to claim the match over Alexander Gillen and the title for Connacht with a 15:13 victory. Connacht have had rare success at the Junior Interpros and were understandably thrilled with their victory.

Connacht also looked strong at Under 12 level, but ultimately were no match for a Leinster side containing some of the best young players in the country – Kate Whelan has been on a hot streak at this level this season and was joined by Katie McGlone, Nga Nguyen and Jessie Hayes in a strong team that dominated the competition and claimed the title.

Colum Slevin Award

The Colum Slevin trophy for Player of the Tournament went to Club Donic and Leinster’s Tom Davis – he held his nerve and produced some fantastic table tennis in what was ultimately the most decisive match of the day. Colum Slevin was on hand to present the prestigious award.

As always, thanks to all of the participants for another memorable day of table tennis, played in an exemplary spirit. Thanks to our provincial branches, coaches and our own volunteers and umpires who work tirelessly on behalf of the ITTA to make this event so special for the players. See you all in 2013!

Full results available here

This Thursday, 17 schools will head to the Valley Leisure Centre in Newtownabbey for the All-Ireland Schools Competition. The hall is open at 9.00 and the draw will take place and check-in closes at 9.30am

Teams will then be given 15 minutes to decide their running order and matches will start at 10.00. Semi-Finals will take place in the U18 Boys, U15 Girls and U13 Boys and Girls. At this time the Finals of the Under 15 Boys and U18 Girls will take place.

There will be a short break for lunch at approximately 13.00. Finals and a Bronze Medal Match in the U13 Boys taking place at 13.30

That means the Prize Ceremony will take place at 16.30 approx.

Entries for each event are as follows:

Under 18 Boys

St. Josephs College – the Bish (Connacht)

Fivemiletown College (Ulster)

Blackrock College (Leinster)

Under 18 Girls

Victoria College (Ulster)

St. Tiernans (Leinster)

Under 15 Boys

Monaghan Collegiate School (Ulster)

Blackrock College (Leinster)

Under 15 Girls

St. Geralds School, Mayo (Connacht)

Royal School Cavan (Ulster)

Deansrath CC (Leinster)

Under 13 Boys

St. Louis School, Mayo (Connacht)

St. Puis X, Magherfelt (Ulster)

Blackrock College (Leinster)

St. Finbarrs N.S (Munster)

Under 13 Girls

Balla Secondary School (Connacht)

Royal School Cavan (Ulster)

Confey College (Leinster)

Following the success of the Tweeting at the Nationals last weekend, Tournament Referee Jamie McConkey will try and keep parents, pupils and the general public up to date. You don’t have to be a member of Twitter to view the page just click on this link. https://twitter.com/#!/IRE_TableTennis

If you are a “Tweeter” going to the event or want to discuss the event we will be using #AISTT and while you’re at it why not follow us and give us a few Retweets.

Good luck to all the competitors in their final preparations and on the day of the event.

Ulster retained the Senior Inter-provincial table tennis shield with victories over Leinster, Munster and Connacht at the BUTTERFLY Senior Inter-pros in Killarney last weekend.

A strong Ulster team af Amanda Mogey, Daryl Strong (pictured above), Ashley Given, Paul McCreery and Phillip Wallace saw off the challenge of Leinster in their final match to retain the title for the fourth year in a row.

The U21 competition was won by Leinster (Conor Beades, Niamh Treacy, Daniel Keenan, Sarah Byrne and Will Gallagher) with the Munster team of Philip Shaw, Pawel Kopacz, Anthony Redmond and Caroline Nolan winning all their matches to take the Veterans event.

For his excellent performances in the veterans event, Kevin Devaney of Connacht, was voted Player of the Tournament and took home the Tommy Caffery award. 

Click here for full results.   

Results

Senior

1st Ulster

2nd Leinster

3rd Munster

4th Connacht

U21

1st Leinster

2nd Ulster

3rd Munster

Veterans

1st Munster

2nd Leinster

3rd Ulster

4th Connacht

(L-R) Gav Reilly, Chris Harrison, Gav Maguire, Rory Coffey(C), Sean O’Gorman, Jack Stapleton, Simon Hickey. Photography by Kim Sin Yap

The Intervarsity Championships took place on 25/26 February in the fine surroundings of UCC’s Mardyke Arena, with some familiar names emerging victorious, although not without some very tight matches that could have gone either way.

This was the first Intervarsity Championships since the death in November 2011 of Judge Hubert Wine, former Irish international, who purchased and donated the trophy for the Men’s Team Champions that bears his name.  The Men’s Team Championship final for the Hubert Wine Cup, first played for in 1949, saw a familiar face off between 12 time defending champions UCD and their opponents of 2011 and 2010, CIT.  UCD had come through to the final with wins over DIT and Queens, followed by a semi final match-up against a strong UCC team.  Meanwhile, CIT had accounted for UCC, Griffith and Trinity followed by victory against Queens in the semi finals.  Both teams were missing some key players, and it was CIT who got off to the better start, at one stage leading 3-2, and with UCD trailing 0-2 in sets in the 2 matches on the table it looked like an upset was on the cards.  These matches ebbed and flowed, and it was clear that the title would be decided in how these matches went.  UCD pegged both rubbers back to 2-2, and in critical exchanges, especially between the respective #1 players, Gavin Maguire (UCD) and Ian Brown (CIT), with Brown especially playing some outstanding table tennis, both points fell to UCD, and as the singles matches finished it was UCD who held the advantage at 7-5 going into the 3 doubles.  All 3 doubles went to the Belfield side, and it was UCD who took the title 10-5, Irish Champions for the 13^th year in a row.

The Men’s Team Plate was a tight match between Griffith College and DIT, both competing at their first Varsities, and it was Griffith who took bragging rights, taking the Men’s Team Plate 8-6.

The Ladies team event was an edgy affair.  UCC held the initial advantage with a 3-0 lead, due to a late withdrawal leaving UCD one lady short.  This was retrieved quickly by UCD, with the first 3 singles going to UCD, and tying the score at 3-3.  UCD took a 2-1 advantage in the next round of singles, and lead the match 5-4, but UCC were not to be outdone and came back strong to claim the doubles match and set up a deciding doubles rubber.  The match went all the way to a 5^th set, where UCD just edged out a small advantage at 8-8 in the 5^th, taking the 2 points for a 10-8 lead and, making no mistake on their first Championship point, took the tie 3-2 and the overall match 6-5, winning the Irish ladies title for the 4^th year in a row.

 In the Men’s singles event, the ties went largely as seeded, with #1 seed Maguire facing James Herley (CIT) in the first semi final, while #2 seed Brown faced UCD #2 Jack Stapleton.  3-0 score lines in both matches gave us a 1v2 Championship Final, with Maguire in no mood to have a repeat of the previous days close team match, running out a 3-0 winner, and taking the title for the 3^rd year in a row.

The Ladies singles, a large round robin, also largely followed form, as other results made it a straight shootout between UCD #1 Sarah Timlin and Huizhuang Xie, UCC #1.  A tight match, as it was in the team event the previous day, with both players competing in their first Intervarsities, saw Timlin take the match 3-1 winning the ladies singles title, Xie in 2^nd place, and Laura Sebille (UCC) and Emma Jane Helen (UCD) taking 3^rd & 4^th.

Thanks go to Joe Kelleher, UCC Club Captain, and his Committee, as well as the staff of the Mardyke Arena, for organising and hosting the event.

This weekend was some great table tennis played as some of Ireland’s top players gathered for the Ulster Senior Open.

In the Men’s event, Paul McCreery and John Murphy cruised through to the Final – McCreery didn’t drop a set and only Daryl Strong stretching John Murphy, taking their match to 5 sets. Murphy took a first set lead in the Final, but then McCreery upped a gear and took control of the match, going on to grind out a 3-1 victory over his international teammate and claim the Ulster Senior Open title.

In the Women’s event, Ashley Givan recorded another home province victory, cruising to the title in straight sets with a win over Connacht’s Sarah Timlin. Earlier in the event, young guns Katie McGlone and Hannah Lynch-Dawson both caused big surprises, each with 5 set wins over Jean Wyse and Sabina Devereux respectively to progress to the semi-finals – a great achievement for both young players.

Ballymena’s Pawel Sulkowski claimed the Class II singles title with a straight sets win over Jonathan Porter. Sulkowski also went all the way to the Final of the Veterans event, taking Pioneers Kevin Mackey to 5 sets – Mackey proved too strong for him and claimed the title, preventing what would have been a fine double for the Ulster man.

In the other events, McCreery and Murphy were a formidable partnership in the Open Doubles, claiming the title with a win over Logue and Robinson. In the Under 21’s, Dawid Sulkowski added to his father’s victory with a great win in the Under 21’s, defeating Jonathan Porter in the Final – Porter thus having the dubious distinction of finishing runner-up in both competitions to the father and son pair! However, the youngster will have been delighted to reach the 2 Finals in one day and will look to go one step further next time out.

Please see attached full results with thanks to Jamie McConkey.