Last weekend saw a young Irish squad travel to England for the Stockton Junior 4 Star tournament. Highlights of the vent for the Irish included a gold for the Cadet Girls in the Team event, Ashley Givan and Edel O’Reilly combining well to defeat the Colin Deaton club of Derbyshire by 3 sets to 1. In the Singles event, O’Reilly was in superb battling form, winning a number of tight matches including a great win over Yolanda King(English No.5) to progress to the semi-finals. Givan also made the semi-final of the main event as well as clinching victory in the Grade 1 cadet singles. Katie McGlone capped off a fine weekend for the girls making the semi-finals of the Under 12s.
The team was coached by Shay Logue – full report to follow tomorrow.
The Allianz Ulster Schools’ Cup was held on a very wet day with numbers depleted because of the strike in the Republic and the withdrawal of some teams because of clashes with other sporting events. So the 44 teams that originally entered were reduced to 31 teams involving 186 players.
Continuous play on 19 tables gave everyone a good day out. Several teams were entering this event for the very first time and so were there to gain experience. A number of close matches occurred in the Under 19 Boys. Three schools retained their titles – Victoria College in the Under 19 Girls, High School Ballynahinch in the Under 15 Boys, and Monaghan Collegiate in the Under 13 Boys. One of the new teams, St Pius X, Magherafelt, took the Under 13 Girls title. Who knows what would have happened in several events if Royal School Cavan, St Clare’s Ballyjamesduff and Fivemiletown College had been able to attend?
The ITTA has today released the Butterfly Senior National Ranking lists following the Leinster Grand Prix. John Murphy, following his victory in Leinster moves to the coveted top position, while Rita Kacsandi remains in the top spot on the Womens ranking list. Many thanks to Rob Cowan for his work on these ranking lists and to Vivienne Barry who has been on hand to assist Rob where required.
Check out our Rankings page to download ranking lists.
The 2009/10 National Team Tournament was staged over the weekend of November 21/22 in Firhouse Sports Centre, Dublin. With entries significantly up on last year, the National Team Tournament title is fast becoming a sought after title on the Irish domestic calendar. Firhouse is a new venue for table tennis and the facility was a popular one with players, with large court sizes and good ancillary facilities.
With some of Ireland’s top players in attendance, the standard of play was very high, particularly in the Premier Division. Both divisions went to the final match and it was particularly good to see entries from some new teams who also will have enjoyed the event.
In the Premier Division, both Eastpoint 1 (G Maguire, J Murphy, S Hanley and Palais (D Strong, P McCreery, K Knox) had each won all 5 of their previous matches so their encounter was essentially the Final. The Ulster based Palais moved into a 2-1 lead with an exciting five setter with Daryl Strong taking the 5th 11-9 to beat Gavin Maguire. The pressure was on John Murphy to keep Eastpoint in the match and he duly delivered, squaring the match 2-2 after another tight five-setter against Paul McCreery. The deciding game was between Sam Hanley and Keith Knox – Knox produced some fantastic table tennis, but Hanley eventually triumphed to take the match and the Paddy Berrigan trophy for Eastpoint. It was a successful weekend for Eastpoint TTC as Eastpoint 2 also finished 3rd in the Premier Division, with Mark O’Flynn, Ryan Farrell and Daniel Keenan winning 4 of their 6 matches.
In Division One, Lucan’s Club Donic(T Fitzgerld, S Zhao Li, S Mealey and C Mullally) and Wexford’s Ballymurn(B Devereux, S Devereux, C Cooper, J Cooper) brought 100% records into the deciding match. After the initial 4 games, which including a tense 5 setter between Sabina Devereux and Conor Mullally which Devereux took, the match was all square at 2-2, when cadet newcomer Shi Zhao Li took his final game in comfortable fashion on a scoreline of 3-0 to secure the Division 1 title for Club Donic.
Many thanks to the staff at Firhouse Sports Centre, to Tournament Referee Tony Martin and to Shay Logue for his assistance over the weekend. Also thanks to Con O’Ceadaigh and members of the Irish Table Tennis Umpires Association who assisted in the smooth running of the event. Congratulations to Eastpoint TTC and Club Donic on their titles – we look forward to continuing the growth of this new even next season.
The lightning fast Pawel Sulkowski (Poland) gave a topspin masterclass at the Ulster Open Veterans championships in Glenburn at the weekend on a day when reigning champion Willie Cherry made a shock exit in the preliminary rounds of the blue riband over 40’s event and it was left to the incredible Ted Mahaffy to spare the Ulster blushes with an over 70’s win.
Sharpshooter Sulkowski has an amazing repertoire of shots and entertained onlookers throughout the tournament. He was devastating in his semi final clash with Balbriggan legend Tommy Caffrey running out a straight sets winner with a series of vicious smashes. Giantkiller Mark McAllister (Cookstown) knocked out fancied runners Cherry and seasoned campaigner Norman Nabney (Belfast) but his impressive run was ended by Peter Clarke (Annahilt) in the semis. In the final Clarke took the game to Pawel but was left battered and bruised by the silky skills of his opponent who really went into overdrive to record a 3-0 victory.
Athlone attacker Karim Sabir was a class act in the over 50’s class beating Gormanstown defender Brian Finn in three closely fought sets to take the title and the multi capped Caffrey came from two games down to just get the better of combination bat supremo Martin Pickles in an entertaining over 60’s final.
The evergreen Ted Mahaffy has retained his swiftness of foot over the years and had a great battle with Ronnie Drayne (Newtownards) coming out on the right side of a 3-1 scoreline to add yet another over 70’s title to his impressive roll of honour.
Results
Over 40’s
Semi Finals
Pawel Sulkowski (Poland) bt Tommy Caffrey (Leinster) 3-0
Peter Clarke (Ulster) bt Mark McAllister (Ulster) 3-0
Final
Sulkowski bt Clarke 3-0
Over 50’s
Karim Sabir (Connacht) bt Brian Finn (Leinster) 3-0
Over 60’s
Caffrey bt Martin Pickles (England)
Over 70’s
Ted Mahaffy (Ulster) bt Ronnie Drayne (Ulster) 3-1
The 2009/10 National Team Tournament was staged over the weekend of November 21/22 in Firhouse Sports Centre, Dublin. With entries significantly up on last year, the National Team Tournament title is fast becoming a sought after title on the Irish domestic calendar. Firhouse is a new venue for table tennis and the facility was a popular one with players, with large court sizes and good ancillary facilities.
With some of Ireland’s top players in attendance, the standard of play was very high, particularly in the Premier Division. Both divisions went to the final match and it was particularly good to see entries from some new teams who also will have enjoyed the event.
In the Premier Division, both Eastpoint 1 (G Maguire, J Murphy, S Hanley and Palais (D Strong, P McCreery, K Knox) had each won all 5 of their previous matches so their encounter was essentially the Final. The Ulster based Palais moved into a 2-1 lead with an exciting five setter with Daryl Strong taking the 5th 11-9 to beat Gavin Maguire. The pressure was on John Murphy to keep Eastpoint in the match and he duly delivered, squaring the match 2-2 after another tight five-setter against Paul McCreery. The deciding game was between Sam Hanley and Keith Knox – Knox produced some fantastic table tennis, but Hanley eventually triumphed to take the match and the Paddy Berrigan trophy for Eastpoint. It was a successful weekend for Eastpoint TTC as Eastpoint 2 also finished 3rd in the Premier Division, with Mark O’Flynn, Ryan Farrell and Daniel Keenan winning 4 of their 6 matches.
In Division One, Lucan’s Club Donic(T Fitzgerld, S Zhao Li, S Mealey and C Mullally) and Wexford’s Ballymurn(B Devereux, S Devereux, C Cooper, J Cooper) brought 100% records into the deciding match. After the initial 4 games, which including a tense 5 setter between Sabina Devereux and Conor Mullally which Devereux took, the match was all square at 2-2, when cadet newcomer Shi Zhao Li took his final game in comfortable fashion on a scoreline of 3-0 to secure the Division 1 title for Club Donic.
Many thanks to the staff at Firhouse Sports Centre, to Tournament Referee Tony Martin and to Shay Logue for his assistance over the weekend. Also thanks to Con O’Ceadaigh and members of the Irish Table Tennis Umpires Association who assisted in the smooth running of the event. Congratulations to Eastpoint TTC and Club Donic on their titles – we look forward to continuing the growth of this new even next season.
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 2nd 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 3rd 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 2nd 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.
Last weekend saw an action packed Ulster Junior Open with 150 competitors from all over Ireland converging on the Shankill Leisure Centre.
Double winner Ashley Given (Dungannon) will surely dominate junior girls table tennis over the next three years as she has just too much power and tactical awareness for her opponents having already represented Northern Ireland at senior level in the Commonwealth championships and Ireland at the recent Six Nations. In the under 14’s final she was pitted against combination bat specialist Edel O’Reilly (Cork) and displayed great patience before unleashing thunderous drives to overcome her tricky opponent in straight sets while the under 17’s final was much more open with free flowing attack the order of the day and Givan was forced to dig deep to beat the talented Rebecca Kenny in four fast and furious sets.
Meanwhile Irish Senior No1 Sam Hanley (Dublin) was hot favourite to the sweep the boards in the under 17 boys and looked to be on course after seeing off a game challenge from fellow Dubliner Sam Logue in the semi’s but the spectacular Ashley Robinson (Clogher) had different ideas. Having just come through a venomous topspin encounter with Fermanagh’s Stephen Slater in the semi which certainly drew loud applause from the appreciative audience, Robinson was simply brilliant in the final using a well rehearsed game plan to outfox the lightning fast Hanley who showed great sportsmanship in defeat. Hanley will look to quickly bounce back as he travels to represent Ireland in the Finland Open at the end of the month.
Ryan Farrell was dominant in the Under 14 Boys, taking the title without dropping a set – Neil Irwin put up a fight in the final but Farrell was cooly efficient as he swept to the title.
Topspin wizard Jonathan Porter claimed gold when he just got the better of his Clogher teammate Mark Gordon in an entertaining four setter while Glenburn club who have produced an abundance of talent over the last 30 years saw their Irish No1 under 12 Laura Finn keep this trend continuing on Saturday with a superb win over Sarah Cooney (Cork).
Connacht will certainly be a province to watch in the future as they dominated the under 10 boys with the Mayo pairing of Martin Williams and Eddie Ditchburn ruling the roost while many made the long journey from Cork and Killarney to participate demonstrating how the sport is also flourishing in Munster.
This was effectively a 2 day competition rolled into 1 day and huge credit and thanks should go to the Tournament Referee Tony Phillips and the team of Umpires and Officials. Also a thank you must go to the catering team of volunteers who provided refreshments over the weekend – a very succesful fundraiser for the Ulster branch.
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