Posts in category: TTI News

Paul McCreery finishes the season sitting at the top on the Butterfly National Senior Rankings which have been released by the ITTA today. This illustrates a meteoric rise for the young player, who began the season ranked 10 in the Ranking List. After a strong showing at the Senior Classification way back in August ’09 when he was just pipped in the Final by Sam Hanley, he has had a real breakthrough season at Senior level, winning both the Munster Open and the Fermanagh Open and finishing Runner-up in the Butterfly National Seniors. Daryl Strong has also had a fantastic season, moving from 9^th to 3^rd in the National Rankings and earning a call-up to the National Squad for the World Team games in Russia. Another big mover was ALSAA’s Sam Logue who moved up eight places and will start next season at 6 in the Ranking list. First year Junior Declan O’Brien has also made remarkable progress up the list and now sits in 12^th place, from 31st at the start of the season – this developing talent will be one to keep any eye on in 2010/11.

In the Butterfly National Ladies Rankings, 14 year old newly crowned National Senior Champion Ashley Givan tops the rankings and could be in line to finish top of the Senior, Junior and Cadet National rankings which would be a remarkable achievement for the Clogher youngster. Again, youth is on the rise in the Ladies list and Connacht’s Sarah Timlin has been the faster mover at the top end of the rankings, moving from 17^th place to 6^th – again one to keep an eye on next year. Balgriffin’s Lavinia Maties has also had an impressive season, moving from 24^th to 13^th as has Clodagh McCullagh of York Road who moved from 35th to 14th in the list.

 Final End of Season Ranking lists are available to download here.

Ulster retained the Senior Inter-provincial table tennis title at Breaffy House, Castlebar in fine style with a brilliant final 6-4 victory over old enemy Leinster, with no less than three of the five player squad being still in the junior ranks.

Ashley Robinson (15 years) from Clogher was the star of the show with a massive victory over National Senior Champion John Murphy in the deciding match, before defeating leading junior Sam Logue of ALSAA TTC.  Robinson’s raw talent was recognised by the ITTA at the Championship Dinner when he was awarded the new Tommy Caffrey ‘Player of the Tournament’ Trophy. Following the presentation of the trophy, Caffrey, who has now played in over 50 Interprovincial tournaments, enthralled the crowd with a speech covering some of his many memories of this wonderful event.

Irish No.1 and top Ulster player Paul McCreery (17 years) was equally impressive as he continued his meteoric rise, also scoring  vital wins over Murphy to reverse the 2010 National Championship Men’s final score line, and over the 2009 Irish champion Gavin Maguire. Ulster anchor Daryl Strong (Queens) gave his customary consistent performance by taking out Maguire, with Ulster’s female starlet Ashley Givan (14 years) from Dungannon securing the Ulster gold medal with an impressive win over Sabina Devereux.

In the Veterans event, Leinster were pushed very hard to retain their title for the 10^th Year running. A dogged home performance from Connacht saw the title deciding match go to a final Singles battle between Kariem Sabir of Connacht and Dave Pemberton of Leinster. This was an enthralling 5 setter which Sabir looked to be favourite to win having taken a 5-3 lead in the 5^th set. Pemberton was not to be beaten however, and displayed some top class table tennis to fight back and claim the 5^th set and the title for the Leinster Veterans.

In the Under 21’s, Leinster also claimed Gold and indeed were the dominant province, dropping very few matches on their way to gold. With 9-1 victories over Munster and Connacht and a 6-2 victory over Ulster, the young Leinster players were deservedly crowned as Interprovincial Under 21 Champions. Munster finished in 2^nd position following a 6-5 victory in a closely fought match with Ulster.

Butterfly Irish Inter-provincial Table Tennis Results Summary(Click for full):

Senior: 1. Ulster; 2. Leinster; 3. Munster; 4 Connaught.

Veteran: 1. Leinster; 2. Connaught; 3. Ulster; 4. Munster.

Under 21: 1. Leinster; 2. Munster; 3. Ulster; 4. Connaught.

Ulster Junior Team Event                            

Ballymena Academy                     

Saturday 27 March 2009

Division 1

1^st           Glenburn 1         Annalise Walker, Emma Ludlow, Laura Finn          4-0

2^nd          AS Legends         Adam McIlmoyle, Peter Neeson, Jack Neeson   3-1

3^rd           Glenburn 2         Andrew Hopkins, Zak Wilson, Ben Sullivan            2-2

4^th           AS Wizz                Thomas McCann, Connor White, Philip Martin    1-3

5^th           AS Median          Darren Tweed, Aaron Steele, David Barnes          0-3

Division 2

1^st           Glenburn 3         Rebecca Finn, Megan Carson, Adam Barr              4-0

2^nd          Islandmagee      Iain Dick, Mark Tweed, Jonathan Armstrong        3-1

3^rd           AS Thunder        Jonny Wilson, Andrew Herbison, Adam Steele   2-2

4^th           Glenburn 4         Glenn McCormack, Zach Ng, James McGrath, Matthew Borne    1-3

5^th           Glenburn 5         John Smith, Daniel Bell, Elizabeth Cathcart, Owen Cathcart           0-4

Report by Tony Martin

The Leinster Premier League which was staged in a central venue at ESB Sportco, Ringsend, Dublin has its final session of matches where the leaders Eastpoint 1 (Daniel Keenan, Mark O’Flynn, John Bowe) and there closest rivals UCD 1 (John Murphy, Sam Logue, Ryan Flood) met to decide who wins the title. Eastpoint only needed a draw to clinch the title and UCD 1 needed a win. Eastpoint got off to a great start saw Daniel Keenan beating Sam Logue but John Murphy levelled the match beating Mark O’Flynn.

John Bowe then accounted for Ryan Flood in a five setter but John Murphy levelled the match 2-2 beating Daniel Keenan. UCD went into the lead by Sam Logue having an easy win over John Bowe so it was up to the final match to decide where the title goes. This match was between Mark and Ryan which saw Ryan winning 3-1 and the holders UCD 1 retaining their title.

In the individuals Mark O’Flynn (Eastpoint) was the winner and Kevin Mackey (Pioneers) was runner-up, see individual results and final league table below.

Results from Sunday 21^st March 2010

UCD 1 beat UCD 2                          6 – 0

Eastpoint 1 beat Athlone 1           5 – 1

Pioneers 1 beat UCD 2                  6 – 0

Pioneers 1 beat Athlone 1            5 – 1

UCD 1 beat Eastpoint 1                 4 – 2

Individuals after Session 3

Mark O’Flynn (E/Point)          12/16  – WINNER

Kevin Mackey (Pioneers)        11/16  – R/U

Sam Logue (UCD 1)                         10/16

Dave Pemberton (Pioneers)    10/16

John Strange (Pioneers)               9/16

Daniel Keenan (E/Point)               7/16

Sam Hanley (E/Point)                    7/16

Ryan Flood (UCD 1)                         7/16

Kieran Burke (Athlone)                 6/16

Brian Finn (Athlone)                       6/16

John Murphy (UCD 1)                   6/16

M. Szymanski (UCD 1)                   6/16

Li Shizhao (UCD 1)                            4/16

Niall McDonnell (UCD 2)                4/16

Conor Fahy (UCD 1)                        4/16

John Bowe (E/Point)                      3/16

Gavin Maguire (E/point)               3/16

Ryan Farrell (E/Point)                    3/16      

Robbie Becker (UCD 2)                 2/16

Sarah Dolan (E/Point)                    1/12

Kariem Sabir (Athlone)                  0/16

Will Gallagher (UCD 2)                   0/16

Robert Gavin (Athlone)                  0/16

Matt Finlay (UCD 2)                       0/16