Posts in category: TTI News

The Irish Junior Boys team of Owen Cathcart (Halmstad), Art McLaughlin (Dublin) & Alan Pattison (Dublin) were drawn in a tough group that included Bosnia & Herzegovina, Latvia, Division top seeds Portugal, and Scotland.

First up on Day 1 was Scotland, with the Irish boys putting in a solid performance to take the 3-0 win, however, later that evening against Portugal, the team didn’t fire, going down on a 1-3 scoreline, and facing down the barrel of entering playoffs, from which their highest possible finishing position would be 29th.  Determined to alleviate the pressure, the team came out blazing on the morning of Day 2, with wins over Latvia, 3-0, and Bosnia & Herzegovina, 3-1, moving the boys into second place in the table and the chance to play for promotion to the top Division.

Day 4 saw the start of the second stage of the Championships, with Ireland drawn against Belarus and Greece, and, with probably their finest sustained passage of play, both teams were accounted for on 3-1 scorelines, with Ireland topping their 2nd group and reaching the promotion playoff places. Playing off for positions 17-20, the team was unable to sustain the level from the second group stage, going down against Turkey (0-3) and Romania (2-3). 

A little disappointed with their last days play, the Junior Boys nonetheless finished in 20th place out of 44 teams, a huge improvement on the last two outings for Junior Boys at the Europeans, up 8 places on 2016 (28th) and up 14 places on 2015 (34th), and was especially impressive given their lower original seeding position due to not entering Junior Boys in 2018 or 2017. This puts the team in a strong position to earn promotion in 2020, and is the highest finish by an Irish Junior Boys team in many years. Owen Cathcart and Art McLaughlin were selected to stay on for the individual events, and neither player disappointed with their performances.

In the doubles, McLaughlin was teamed up with Scot Danny Bajwa, however their nascent partnership didn’t click easily enough to avoid a Round 1 defeat against Austria.  Meanwhile, Cathcart had renewed his established doubles pairing with Borgar Haug of Norway, and this accomplished team won their way through three rounds, with wins over a Czech/Slovak combination, Hungary, and Denmark, before going out in the Quarter Finals, on a 1-3 scoreline, against 2nd Seeds France.  Coming within one match of a European medal is a huge achievement for Cathcart, and is just reward for all the work and commitment being put in, both by him and by his new Club in Halmstad.

In the singles, Cathcart had a bye to the Round of 128, where he was drawn against Greek Zisas Doukeris, who had earlier played against Ireland in the team event, a match won 3-0 by Cathcart; and another professional performance against Doukeris, this time a 4-0 victory, set up a Last 64 against 6th Seed Lilian Bardet of France, with Cathcart never really hitting the high standards of which he is capable, going out 0-4 to the French player.

McLaughlin was drawn against Matei Dumitrescu of Romania in the Round of 256, winning through 4-2.  In the Round of 128, McLaughlin faced once again Daniel Kogans from Latvia, and, as with their tie in the team event, this match hung in the balance until the very end, with McLaughlin only taking the lead for the first time early in the 7th set, going on to take the match 4-3.  The reward for reaching the Last 64 was a meeting with the 9th Seed, Belgian Olav Kosolosky, McLaughlin going down 1-4 in a hard fought encounter.

The cadet girls team of Sophie Earley, Silke Heinen and Lucy McIvor faced Luxemboug, Austria, Switzerland and Spain in its opening group. With two teams to qualify from round one, the stakes were high. First up was Luxembourg who took the opening game against a nervous Sophie Earley(3/1). Silke Heinen, however, was undaunted and levelled the match at 1/1. The doubles combination of Earley/Heinen put Ireland ahead 2/1 and Sophie Earley added another win for a 3/1 victory.

Second match up was against a determined Austria. Sophie Earley’s nerves had now disappeared and she won the opening game. This was followed by a win from Silke Heinen and the match was completed with an impressve doubles win (3/0). Third win on the trot  against Switzerland with a 3/1 victory. Final match saw Ireland play Spain to determine the group winner. Sophie won two singles but crucially we lost the doubles and Spain took the other singles games against Silke.

Second phase gave Ireland a chance to advance to the top 16 against Belarus. A truly amazing battle saw the lead ebb and flow many times. Two fine wins from Sophie but the doubles loss was crucial. The match, on a knifes’ edge at 2/2, with Silke leading 2/1 and game and match point but Belarus managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on a 2-3 scoreline. 

The Cadet girls now played for positions 17 to 28. They lost to a strong Portugal 0/3. Lucy McIvor made her EYC debut against England. Sophie claimed two more singles and a doubles from Silke/Sophie gave Ireland a 3/1 victory. Ireland’s fifth win came against Estonia. Sophie notched up two more wins and again another Silke/Sophie doubles win. Another 3/1 victory.

Ireland finished in 21st position, an improvement of nine places from the previous championship in Romania. Sophie also competed in the singles event and with two impressive wins v Sisanovaite (Ltu) and Balough (Hun) advanced to the last 32 where she fought bravely before losing to fifth seed Papadimitriou (Gre) 2/4. Overall an impressive showing from the girls.

Following her impressive performance, workrate and commitment at the ITTF training and selection camp in Shanghai earlier in the year, Sophie has been selected for the Hopes Team for a second year. This is a four person team and players from USA, Malaysia and Singapore make up the remainder of the team.

The Hopes team consists of players who are U13 and will compete against the top U15 girls from the continents of Europe, North America, South America, Oceania, Africa, Asia and the host nation Poland. The team will gather for a four day training camp before the tournament. 

Sophie will also play in the singles event. Performance Manager, Conn Higgins, stated it was a huge honour for Sophie to be selected as competition for the four places on the Hopes team was very intense. Great credit is due to Sophie, her parents and her club Ormeau TTC. Table Tennis Ireland wishes Sophie all the best for the event.

Table Tennis Ireland would like to wish the players and coaches attending the Euro Mini Championships in Strasbourg next week the very best of luck. Gavin Maguire has said “this event has been the springboard for many of our performance players over the last 6/7 years. It will provide fantastic exposure and opportunity for our players to test themselves against international opposition”. 

Two boys & two girls from the 2007 category and one boy and one girl from the 2008 category were selected. Please see below the players selected to attend:

• Daniel McFaul (Lisburn Rapids)
• Matthew Mooney (Ormeau)
• Aedan McGivern (Craigavon)
• Anjali Singh (Ormeau)
• Alice Looney (Ormeau)
• Grace Looney (Ormeau) 

In the group stages, the Irish Cadet Boys team of Dillon Byrne, James Skelton and Tom Colvin were pitted against Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Malta. The Irish team were able to convincingly push their way to a group first place with 3-0, 3-1 & 3-1 wins respectively. 

After the group stage, Ireland were drawn to play Slovakia in the Last 16 of the competition. Coming up against the number 8 in Europe, Goldir, James Skelton was able to draw down a 10-5 lead in the deciding set at 2-2, unfortunately he was unable to convert and Ireland went 1-0 down. Dillon Byrne stepped up to the plate and convincingly dispatched of the Slovak number 2 Ulherik 3-0. Going into the Doubles the pairing of Dillon and Tom Colvin making his introduction to the match lost out deuce in the 4th in an another incredibly close encounter which at one point had the Irish pair leading 2-1 8-4. Dillon Byrne was unable to pick the Irish hopes back up and he also ran out a 3-2 loser to Goldir the number 1. Agonisingly close to a tremendous feat but the team did themselves proud. 

Moving on to the positional playoffs Ireland were drawn against Norway and Bulgaria, which proved to be an incredibly close group contest. Ireland beat Norway 3-2 with wins from Skelton, Byrne and the Byrne/Colvin in Doubles. Ireland lost 3-2 to Bulgaria with a win each from Skelton and Byrne and a deuce in the 5th loss in the Doubles for Byrne & Colvin. The narrowest of margins again lead to Ireland losing out on a count back and taking 3rd spot in the group which put them into an unfairly reflecting 25-28 playoff. 

Unable to pick themselves up against Greece the Irish boys slumped to a 3-0 defeat but did manage to end the tournament with a 3-0 win over Estonia to sign off the tournament on a positive note. There is lots to be proud of from this Irish team and plenty to be built on for next year. Congratulations to the team of Dillon Byrne, James Skelton and Tom Colvin. 

Results:

v Estonia 3-0 (Byrne 1.5, Skelton 1.5)

v Bosnia & Herz 3-1 (Byrne 2.5, Skelton 0, Colvin 0.5)

v Malta 3-0 (Byrne 1.5, Colvin 1.5)

v Slovakia 1-3 (Byrne 1, Skelton 0, Colvin 0)

v Norway 3-2 (Byrne 1.5, Skelton 1, Colvin 0.5)

v Bulgaria 2-3 (Byrne 1, Skelton 1, Colvin 0)

v Greece 0-3 (Skelton 0, Colvin 0, Byrne, 0)

v Estonia 3-0 (Byrne 1.5, Colvin 1.5)

The cadet girls team of Sophie Earley, Silke Heinen and Lucy McIvor faced Luxemboug, Austria, Switzerland and Spain in its opening group. With two teams to qualify from round one, the stakes were high. First up was Luxembourg who took the opening game against a nervous Sophie Earley(3/1). Silke Heinen, however, was undaunted and levelled the match at 1/1. The doubles combination of Earley/Heinen put Ireland ahead 2/1 and Sophie Earley added another win for a 3/1 victory.

Second match up was against a determined Austria. Sophie Earley’s nerves had now disappeared and she won the opening game. This was followed by a win from Silke Heinen and the match was completed with an impressve doubles win (3/0). Third win on the trot  against Switzerland with a 3/1 victory. Final match saw Ireland play Spain to determine the group winner. Sophie won two singles but crucially we lost the doubles and Spain took the other singles games against Silke.

Second phase gave Ireland a chance to advance to the top 16 against Belarus. A truly amazing battle saw the lead ebb and flow many times. Two fine wins from Sophie but the doubles loss was crucial. The match, on a knifes’ edge at 2/2, with Silke leading 2/1 and game and match point but Belarus managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on a 2-3 scoreline. 

The Cadet girls now played for positions 17 to 28. They lost to a strong Portugal 0/3. Lucy McIvor made her EYC debut against England. Sophie claimed two more singles and a doubles from Silke/Sophie gave Ireland a 3/1 victory. Ireland’s fifth win came against Estonia. Sophie notched up two more wins and again another Silke/Sophie doubles win. Another 3/1 victory.

Ireland finished in 21st position, an improvement of nine places from the previous championship in Romania. Sophie also competed in the singles event and with two impressive wins v Sisanovaite (Ltu) and Balough (Hun) advanced to the last 32 where she fought bravely before losing to fifth seed Papadimitriou (Gre) 2/4. Overall an impressive showing from the girls.

The Irish Junior Boys team of Owen Cathcart (Halmstad), Art McLaughlin (Dublin) & Alan Pattison (Dublin) were drawn in a tough group that included Bosnia & Herzegovina, Latvia, Division top seeds Portugal, and Scotland.

First up on Day 1 was Scotland, with the Irish boys putting in a solid performance to take the 3-0 win, however, later that evening against Portugal, the team didn’t fire, going down on a 1-3 scoreline, and facing down the barrel of entering playoffs, from which their highest possible finishing position would be 29th.  Determined to alleviate the pressure, the team came out blazing on the morning of Day 2, with wins over Latvia, 3-0, and Bosnia & Herzegovina, 3-1, moving the boys into second place in the table and the chance to play for promotion to the top Division.

Day 4 saw the start of the second stage of the Championships, with Ireland drawn against Belarus and Greece, and, with probably their finest sustained passage of play, both teams were accounted for on 3-1 scorelines, with Ireland topping their 2nd group and reaching the promotion playoff places. Playing off for positions 17-20, the team was unable to sustain the level from the second group stage, going down against Turkey (0-3) and Romania (2-3). 

A little disappointed with their last days play, the Junior Boys nonetheless finished in 20th place out of 44 teams, a huge improvement on the last two outings for Junior Boys at the Europeans, up 8 places on 2016 (28th) and up 14 places on 2015 (34th), and was especially impressive given their lower original seeding position due to not entering Junior Boys in 2018 or 2017. This puts the team in a strong position to earn promotion in 2020, and is the highest finish by an Irish Junior Boys team in many years. Owen Cathcart and Art McLaughlin were selected to stay on for the individual events, and neither player disappointed with their performances.

In the doubles, McLaughlin was teamed up with Scot Danny Bajwa, however their nascent partnership didn’t click easily enough to avoid a Round 1 defeat against Austria.  Meanwhile, Cathcart had renewed his established doubles pairing with Borgar Haug of Norway, and this accomplished team won their way through three rounds, with wins over a Czech/Slovak combination, Hungary, and Denmark, before going out in the Quarter Finals, on a 1-3 scoreline, against 2nd Seeds France.  Coming within one match of a European medal is a huge achievement for Cathcart, and is just reward for all the work and commitment being put in, both by him and by his new Club in Halmstad.

In the singles, Cathcart had a bye to the Round of 128, where he was drawn against Greek Zisas Doukeris, who had earlier played against Ireland in the team event, a match won 3-0 by Cathcart; and another professional performance against Doukeris, this time a 4-0 victory, set up a Last 64 against 6th Seed Lilian Bardet of France, with Cathcart never really hitting the high standards of which he is capable, going out 0-4 to the French player.

McLaughlin was drawn against Matei Dumitrescu of Romania in the Round of 256, winning through 4-2.  In the Round of 128, McLaughlin faced once again Daniel Kogans from Latvia, and, as with their tie in the team event, this match hung in the balance until the very end, with McLaughlin only taking the lead for the first time early in the 7th set, going on to take the match 4-3.  The reward for reaching the Last 64 was a meeting with the 9th Seed, Belgian Olav Kosolosky, McLaughlin going down 1-4 in a hard fought encounter.