Posts in category: TTI News

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.

Ireland’s last remaining player in the Singles event in the European Championships, Paul McCreery, was knocked out of the tournament this evening following defeat by the Polish No.6 Ranked player Chodorski. McCreery lost the 1st set before levelling at 1.1. However, the Pole was too strong and McCreery eventually bowed out by a 4.1 scoreline. McCreery however, has another year left at Junior level and will look to improve on an already impressive performance in 2009 at the 2010 European Youths in Turkey.

In the Cadet Mixed Doubles 1st Round , Slater and Givan took the first game 14-12, after losing a 7-3 lead, Pitkewics and Kozma fought back to deuce, with the Irish holding their nerve under the TV cameras  to establish an early lead. The second set also went to the Irish, fighting back from 5-3 down to eventually take the set 11-9. With coaches Brett and Logue on duty, the Irish closed out the game in straight sets(11-8 in 3^rd set)  to progress to the 2^nd Round where they will face English opponents Lewis Gray and Tin Tin Ho. We will have further updates later this evening from the other Irish in action, but a positive start to the day for the Irish squad.

Today was a busy day for the Irish in Prague at the European Youth Championships. All 8 squad members were in action in the singles, with 5 players progressing to tomorrow’s 2^nd Round.

In the Junior Boys Singles, a remarkable display by all 3 Irish boys saw all 3 progress to the 2^nd Round without dropping a set. Paul McCreery defeated Labenouski from Belarus 4-0(8, 10, 10, 7) with Sam Hanley also winning in 4(9,1,5,2) against Kert Rais from Estonia. They will be joined in the 2^nd Round by Ashley Robinson from Ulster who enjoyed a straightforward victory over Gambina from Malta(3,4,8,5). All 3 move into the 2^nd Round tomorrow. Hanley will face Slovenian Slodej(Ranked 73 in Europe), McCreeery will face Dalea(Ranked 56 in Europe) and Robinson has a tough game against the Cypriot Yiangao(Ranked 33 in Europe). All 3 players face opponents with significantly higher rankings, but will carry confidence from today’s performances into their matches and will seek to cause an upset or two.

In the Junior Girls Singles, Claire Nelson progressed to the 2^nd Round, defeating Vastavuo of Finland 4-1. She faces SLIFIRCZYK (ranked 66 in Europe) of Poland in tomorrow’s 2^nd Round.

In the Cadet Singles, both Declan O’Brien and Stephen Slater were eliminated, although O’Brien took has match to 7 sets, eventually losing 4-3.

In the Cadet Girls, AShley Givan played a thrilling match with the Turkish player Pinar Sen, eventually winning 4:3 to progress to the 2nd Round where she will face Italian Elisa Trotti(ranked 38 in Europe).

In the Junior Mixed Doubles, Claire Nelson and Paul McCreery progressed, beating the English pair McBeath and Vickers 3-1. Hanley and Kenny were eliminated by the Swiss Mixed Doubles partnership. In the Cadet Mixed Doubles, Slater and Givan were outclassed by Ho and Gray of England in their 2^nd Round tie. In the Junior Girls Doubles, Nelson and Rebecca Kenny progressed to the 2^nd Round where they will face a pair from Luxembourg on Thursday. In the Junior Boys Doubles, Hanley and McCreery teamed up well to defeat Oktav(TUR) and Neiman(ISR) to progress to the 2^nd Round in straight sets.

It was a successful weekend in the Team Events, with the Under 18 boys duo Gavin Maguire and Paul McCreery and the Under 16 boys duo Ashley Robinson and Sam Hanley both claiming gold with fantastic victories over England. The Under 18 girls also made their Team Final, Claire Nelson and Rebecca Kenny claiming silver following a loss to England.

In the individual event, the Irish squad was cut as a number of players travelled to a pre European Youths cadet training camp in Halmstad, Sweden. Sam Hanley progressed to the Final of the Under 16 Boys, losing out to Lewis Gray of England whom he had defeated 3-0 in the Team event. Claire Nelson also took silver in her individual event, defeating English junior No.1 Emma Vickers for the first time along the way. Women’s Coach Arthur Brett was delighted with this result and pleased with the performance of the Under 18 girls overall.

Please see below for further results:

Team event

U18 boys——– beat England A 3/0 in semi final    beat England B  3/1 in Final

U18 girls——— beat England B 3/1 in semi final    lost to England A  0/3 in final

U16 boys (A)—- beat England A 3/1 in semi final   beat Scotland B   3/1 in final

U16 boys(B)—— lost to England  A  in ¼ final

U16 girls———- finished 3^rd in group and won consolation event

U14 boys ——– finished 3^rd in group and won consolation event

U14 girls ——— lost 3^rd /4^th play off

Singles event: Highlights

Gavin Maguire lost in semi final to Emran Hussain (eng) 2/3(U18)

Paul McCreery lost in semi final to Christopher Doran(eng) 1/3(U18)

Sam Hanley lost in final to Lewis Gray (eng) 0/3  (u16)

Claire Nelson lost in final to Lucy Davidson (eng) 0/3   (u18)

Full Squads:

Senior Boys:      Gavin Maguire, Paul McCreery

Under 16 A:       Sam Hanley, Ashley Robinson

Under 16B:        Sam Logue, Stephen Slater

Under 14:           Declan O’Brien, Neil Irwin

Senior Girls:       Claire Nelson, Rebecca Kenny,

Under 16:           Sara Dolan, Ashley Givan

Under 14:           Edel O’Reilly, Niamh Buttimer