Posts in category: TTI News

Over the past few months in the trialing of our new Membership platform, there have been some issues & over time we have now addressed these. Below is a list of some of the issues that have been raised and dealt with over the past few months. 

Resolved Issues:

Euro/Pound Sterling Payments – Previously all transactions on GoMembership were € Euro transactions regardless of your home address. Now GoMembership will automatically detect your preferred payment option based on your address. If you have selected your country as United Kingdom, payments will automatically translate to a £ Pounds sterling payment as no additional cost to the member. If you have selected your country as Ireland, your payments will remain in € Euro. Should you wish to change this, you can select your preferred currency within the settings of your profile. 

Upgrading Profiles – Players who had previously registered with Table Tennis Ireland on a lower level affiliation were unable to upgrade to a higher level license via GoMembership. This facility has now been created for our members and someone who purchases a lower level license such as ‘League Player Only’ can now upgrade their license to ‘Senior Player’ and just pay the difference remaining rather than purchase the higher license on top of the previous license. 

Group Entries – Previously, clubs entering tournaments were unable to add multiple entries to their purchase basket and had to enter each player individually. Now, this issue has been resolved and nominated club admins can now block enter their players in multiple events in an individual tournament. In order for clubs to do this, it is essential that players have become a member of this club on the GoMembership system. 

Multiple Club Memberships – In some cases clubs will be purchasing licenses for all of their players in one group transaction and before this wasn’t workable via GoMembership. It is now possible for the nominated club admins to Block Purchase or renew Licenses for these players in one transaction creating an easy process for Club players licenses to be purchased or renewed. Clubs regestiring for the first time can also drag and drop an excel file of their members in order to create a faster process of profile creation rather than creating each profile individually. 

Outstanding Issues:

Tournament Discounts – TTI are aware that some people were unable to avail of tournament discounts for multiple event entries via GoMembership. This is currently being addressed by GoMembership and we will endeavour to update you in the near future with a resolution. 

Family Entries – Unfortunately GoMembership is currently unable to facilitate families entering multiple children into one event. If families wish to do this they must enter each child individually through the childs profiles however, a work around of this is to enter via the families club. Parents can become club admins and enter their children in a block purchase this way. 

The GoMembership platform has also seen the introduction of our brand new Club Finder for all Table Tennis Member clubs which if you haven’t seen yet can be found HERE

If you have any outstanding issues or thoughts on the GoMembership systems improvement please do not hesitate to email us on [email protected]

Ms. O’Brien was well known and respected by many members of the Association and was the wife of Mr. Pat O’Brien a former Irish international player, Vice president and long-time servant of Irish table Tennis.

The family has requested Family flowers only, please. Donations, if desired, to the Irish Cancer Society can be made at the church.
 
May she rest in peace.

All level as Ormeau Make Debut in Premier Division of Senior British League

Belfast, 16th October 2017.

Ormeau Table Tennis Club recently jumped at the opportunity to play in the Premier Division of the Senior British League – the pinnacle of table tennis in the UK.  However, Ormeau drew a tough opener against last year’s champions Drumchapel (Glasgow) in the first away match of the season.

A strong Ormeau team made the trip, including three-time National Champion Paul McCreery, two-time National Champion Gavin Maguire, professional Ashley Robinson and three-time singles ITTF World Cadet Tour winner Owen Cathcart.  They were guided under the watchful eye of coach Keith Knox.

Drumchapel fielded an experienced team with Scottish international Craig Howieson and English international David McBethalong along with Victor Guang Shi and Sepehr Bidari.

Ormeau got off to a slow start going 2-0 down with Robinson losing to McBeth 3-1 in a close game where he was 2-1 down but lead 10-6 in the 4th end but couldn’t do enough to close out the English international.  McCreery, just home from a trip to the US, was suffering from the effects of jet-lag.  He fought hard on the day but Howieson took the match 3-0 leaving Drumchapel 2-0 up.

The second set of matches involved Ormeau’s home talent Owen Cathcart and Irish international Gavin Maguire.  At only fifteen years old, Cathcart has already gained much international experience and this showed as he did not look phased after dropping the first set (4-11).  He came back to the table looking composed and motivated.  Guang Shi found himself under a lot of pressure and Cathcart was able to close out the game 3-1.  Maguire started his match against Bidari in great spirits, winning the first two sets 11-8, 11-4 but narrowly lost out on the third 10-12.  He maintained his composure and played a strong fourth set to win 11-5 and taking the match 3-1.

With the overall score level at 2-2 club coach Keith Knox could sense that this game was not going to be controlled by current champions Drumchapel and, with four singles matches remaining, there was everything to play for.

The third set of matches involved McCreery and Robinson against McBeth and Shi.  Robinson, just home form his training base in Sweden on Friday, showed his class by playing outstanding attacking table tennis to make quick work of Guang Shi, winning 3-0 (11-3, 11-4, 11-6).  McCreery did not look his usual self as he lost to experienced professional David McBeth 3-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-4).

The score remained level at 3-3 going into the last set of matches with final pairings of Cathcart facing Bidari and Maguire facing Drumchapel team captain and Scottish International Craig Howieson.

Cathcart could not have handled his first premier league outing any better by producing another flawless game beating Bidari 3-0 (8-11, 5-11, 7-11). Ormeau now had the upper hand with the scoreline at 4-3 and only one match remaining.  Through sheer will and determination Maguire battled his way to take the first two sets off Howieson, but Howieson took the third 11-7 then continued to gain momentum in the fourth, pushing Maguire off the table to bring the scores level.  Ormeau’s hopes of a win were finally dashed as Howieson took fifth set 11-6.

Nevertheless, this was a massive achievement for Ormeau on their Premier Division debut.  Describing this valuable draw against last year’s champions, team coach Keith Knox said, “this has been a fantastic start for us in the Senior British League.  We came close to winning against the title holders on their home turf, so we’re looking forward to our first home fixture against Scotland’s number two team, North Ayreshire, in Belfast on 11th November.”

Ormeau next play at their home venue (113 The Mount, Belfast, BT5 4ND) on Saturday 11th November at 2pm.  Come along if you would like to see top-level table tennis action from the Premier Division of the Senior British League being played in Belfast for the very first time.

BBC Northern Ireland Unsung Hero’s

Keith and Gervis Knox the founders of Ormeau Table Tennis Club have been awarded BBC Sports Personalities Unsung Hero’s award for Northern Ireland. An incredible achievement to recognise the tireless work that has gone on to create a full time facility for Table Tennis in the heart of Belfast City. The club caters for all ages, abilities, genders, religions and races and the atmosphere within the club is a credit to the work these two table tennis stalwarts have put in.

Gervis and Keith commented: “We are in absolute shock, completely unexpected and unthinkable! We can only thank our remarkable members, players, family & friends over the last 4 years for believing in the vision we have for Table Tennis.”

The lads will head over to Liverpool mid December to the BBC Sports Personality Awards 2017. No doubt it will prove to be a fantastic event!

Premier British League

Click here to see the BBC’s short clip on the game

Ormeau celebrated Premier British League’s arrival in Northern Ireland in style as they moved to the top of the table with an 8-0 whitewash of North Ayrshire.

The fixture was the first ever top-flight game to be staged in Northern Ireland, and the quartet of Oriol Monzo, Paul McCreery, Gavin Maguire and Keith Knox ensured it would be a day to remember as they gave the visiting Scots a harsh lesson at the start of their campaign.

This was North Ayrshire’s first game of the season after their opening round match with Fusion was postponed, and without the talents of Colin Dalgleish and Craig Hardie, they struggled to make their mark on the contest.

But the day belonged to Ormeau, who top the division after dropping just one end on their way to victory.

Oriol Monzo gave the hosts a fine start with victory over Chris Main while Paul McCreery dispatched of Sean Doherty.

Gavin Maguire and Keith Knox made light work of promising youngsters Harvey McDonald and Andrew Macpherson to give Ormeau a 4-0 advantage, and while North Ayrshire did put up some resistance when Doherty took the first end of Monzo, the Spanish star hit back to win 3-1 and secure victory.

But in front of their own supporters, Ormeau were in no mood to rest up, and straight end victories for Maguire, McCreery and Knox over Main, Macpherson and McDonald secured a memorable victory.

Click here to see the BBC’s short clip on the game

MAGUIRE & FAZLIC TAKE TOP HONORS AT DAVID LLOYD OPEN

David Lloyd Club Belfast was the venue for the latest Irish Senior Ranking event last Saturday sponsored by McDonalds Dundonald and Drew Wylie Building Services.

Irish #1 Gavin Maguire showed his class by winning the Men’s Singles event without dropping a set. He was given a tough test in the 1/4 Finals by 13-year-old Ormeau star James Skelton and then defeated top Ormeau Veteran Daryl Strong in the Semis. The final against Dubliner Sam Logue was a high quality match with some outstanding rallies, however Gavin was just too good on the day.

The Ladies Singles was won by top German Junior Sejla Fazlic who has recently moved to Dublin. Sejla produced some brilliant attacking shots with her Short Pimpled Forehand and only dropped one set on her way to victory. Runner Up was 11 year old Ormeau starlet Sophie Earley who has just returned from the Euro Minis with an unbelievable 5th place finish. Sophie will learn a lot from playing someone with the quality of Sejla and come back even stronger as always. Third place went to Pravesha Ragi from PingZone in Dublin.

The Class 2 event (any player not ranked in top 20 in Ireland) was the most competitive of all the categories with some brilliant matches in the group stages. A special mention must go to Ormeau stars Joel Smith and Sophie Earley who provided a spectacular match enjoyed by the big crowd. Joel won 3/1 in a breath-taking fashion and the quality of some of the rallies were just jaw dropping! The winner of the Class 2 event was Irish Cadet James Skelton who recently gave up Tennis to concentrate on Table Tennis. His biggest quality is his ice cool temperament and he needed to be calm in the final against club mate Phil Jamison. The first set could have gone either way with both players having game points until James sneaked it 15/13. James then relaxed and played a superb controlled game to win 3/0.

The Masters event was a high-quality competition as always. The standard in Ulster Table Tennis in the over 40 year old category is incredible with Daryl Strong and Phil Wallace the top 2 ranked players. Daryl (Ormeau) won this event but did not have it all his own way by any means. Pawel Sulkoski (Ballymoney) gave Daryl a real fright in the 1/4s and he then defeated Mark McAllister (Omagh) in the Semis. Brian Devereux (Wexford) who had beaten Phil Wallace (Ormeau) in the other Semi was Daryl’s opponent in the final. Brian led 2/1 in sets and it has to be said that Daryl looked a beaten man! However his new training regime at the David Lloyd gym kicked in and he produced a spirited fightback to win the match 3/2. Daryl is the current #1 over 40 year old player in Britain after his recent success in the UK Singles in Guernsey and he deserves all the plaudits that go with it.

Tournament co-ordinators Gervis Knox and Allen Robson would like to thank all the clubs, players and parents who supported their event. Huge effort was put into the tournament this year and is growing from year to year! 

Click here to see results from the mens singles event

Report by Allen Robson

A great night was had by all in Ormeau TTC on Thursday 28th September as the club broke the world record for the most consecutive opponents in a table tennis rally!

Click here to see the video!