A large squad of Irish players are competing in the Luxembourg Open this week, with some significant results recorded. Amanda Mogey has been the star performer of the Irish contingent, with some big wins in the Women’s Singles event.
Amanda Mogey in action
With a 1st Round 4-0win over Algerian Islem Laid, Mogey faced a difficult contest against the 13th seed, Sweden’s Jennifer Jonsson who is World Ranked 303. Mogey put in her best international performance for some time, with a massive 4-2 victory to send her in to the last 16 tomorrow morning where she will face home based player Gonderinger who is seeded 6.
Elsewhere, Gavin Maguire had two wins over Mladenovic of Luxembourg and Josh Band of Jersey before being eliminated by Anton Kallberg 4-2. Paul McCreery had a titanic 4-3 win over Austrian Serdaroglu, before dropping out of the main event at the last 32 stage with a defeat by Swede Simon Arvidsson.
Sarah Timlin, Emma Ludlow, Hannah Lynch-Dawson, Ryan Farrell and Ashley Robinson are all also in action in Luxemborg and with the exception of Mogey who remains in the main event, all of the players will be battling for places in the play-off events over the weekend.
A record 31 teams took part in yesterday’s All Ireland Schools Finals held in the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght. It was the first year that the Primary and Secondary finals were combined and it proved a great success with supporters from all over the country adding to the great atmosphere.
The match of the day was undoubtably the U15 boys final between St. Louis Kiltimagh and last year’s winners Blackrock College. It went right down to the wire with St. Louis finally clinching it in the doubles. Blackrock were triumphant in the U19 boy’s overcoming Ballyclare in another gripping contest.
Colaiste Choilm beat Malone in the U13 boys semi final to book a place against Presentation College, Carlow who had earlier beaten Colaiste Mhuire, Ballymote. Colaiste Choilm won out to take the top spot.
The Primary Boys competition was won by Manulla NS who beat St. Ronan’s in the final.
The girls competition saw some entertaining and competitive matches across all age groups.
Colaiste Choilm U19’s overcame Balla in the final having beaten Cavan Royal en route.
St. Louis, Kiltimagh contested both the U13 and U15 competition. They were successful in the U15s beating Mercy Heights, Skibberreen but lost out to Mountrath in the U13 final.
Kerrypike NS came out top in the Primary School Girls Final beating Mountrath.
The event was well supported by all the schools but special mention must go to the supporters from Manulla NS who were by far the most colourful and enthusiastic fans of the day. They arrived armed with banners and posters and cheered their team along all day.
The R. Greer shield was first presented in 1950, since then Ulster have clocked up 36 titles including the previous 5 titles and Leinster 25 last winning in 2008.
R. Greer Shield (seniors) total titles since 1984:
Ulster 36
Leinster 25
Veterans – Sport Council for NI Shield – Holders: Ulster
Connacht
Leinster
Munster
Ulster
Wins
Connacht
# # #
2
0
0
0
Leinster
5
# # #
6
6
3
Munster
9
3
# # #
4
1
Ulster
9
3
5
# # #
2
The Shield for the Veterans Interprovincial was donated in 1984 by the Sports Council for Northern Ireland. In 2013 Ulster won their first title in 14 years, in 2012 Munster won in Killarney and Leinster had won the previous 11 titles before that. Connacht won the title back in 1999.
Veterans total titles since 1950:
Leinster 14
Ulster 13
Munster 1
Connacht 1
Under 21s – Clarence Moore Memorial Shield – Holders: Leinster
Connacht
Leinster
Munster
Ulster
Wins
Connacht
# # #
0
0
1
0
Leinster
10
# # #
3
6
2
Munster
10
6
# # #
7
3
Ulster
6
3
3
# # #
1
The Clarence Moore Memorial Shield was first introduced in 1982, Leinster have won the last 11 Under 21 Interprovincial titles since 2003, with Munster winning their last title in 2002 and Ulster in 1998.
Clarence Memorial Shield (under 21) total titles since 1982:
Irish internationals Gavin Maguire(pictured serving above) and Ashley Robinson are in action today in the ITTF World Tour Event at Magdeburg, Germany.
Both players are drawn in tough groups against players ranked just outside the top 100 in the World Rankings. Maguire fell to a 4-1 defeat to Ionescu of Romania and faces Kolarek of Croatia in his next group game. Robinson faced a top Korean player Kim, ranked 115 and gave him a real battle, losing out 4-2 in the end, losing the final set 11-9. He will take confidence from this in to his game later today with Zolt.
In the Doubles tonight, a tough Taipei pair lie in wait for the Irish duo, and again they will be chasing a big scalp and looking to pull off a shock win.
The ITTA is delighted to announce that two athletes have received generous support through the Paralympics Ireland Fast Track Athlete scheme. This programme provides ring fenced supports for promising athletes that have emerged from the post London 2012 talent search.
Tom Davis and Colin Judge will both receive funding support through this scheme which will see them receive financial support to travel to two high level international Para events later this season.
Judge was delighted with the support from Paralympics Ireland, stating;
“Delighted to hear that I have been successful in receiving funding from Paralympics Ireland. I look forward to travelling abroad and competing in competitions worldwide. I am forever grateful for this wonderful opportunity.”
Davis, still a Junior and a member of the Irish Junior National Team, stated;
“I was really pleased to find out that the funding came through. It’sa brilliant opportunity for me to see how far I can get in table tennis. I have been playing a long time and now I have a chance to show what I’m capable of. I am really looking forward to competing in some tournaments abroad as its a great experience. I love table tennis and really want to do well, this funding gives me a chance to do that.”
This funding news follows the recent announcement that both Senior Athlete Panel members Philip Quinlan and Rena McCarron Rooney have achieved Carding Status for 2014 which will support their efforts over the international season, with the World Championships later this year being the targeted event. So a good year ahead with two promising athletes pushing hard to join Quinlan and Rooney McCarron on the senior athlete panel.
In further good news, Christine Doyle and Colin Judge both have recently returned from the Hungarian Para TT Open.
For Judge, it was a disappointing return from a very tough draw against higher ranked opponents. He will take comfort from his win over Israeli Alon Nigri and will look to bounce back following strong training over the coming months with big performances in the Spanish and Romanian Para TT Opens. Judge also took a set from the eventual winner of the event Ludrovsky of Slovakia, who is World Ranked 7. There is certainly better to come from the promising new National Champion.
Christine Doyle with Gold Medal
Christine Doyle(pictured) produced her best Table Tennis of the last year to take the gold medal in the Ladies Class 5 singles, beating Anna Maria Hentig from Germany and Yvette Moerdijk from the Netherlands. It was very good standard in class 5 and a great result for both Christine & Irish Para Table Tennis.
In the Ladies team Event Christine Doyle class 5 played with Kovacs Ilona from Hungary a Class 1 player and they won bronze in the team event. Again, Christine produced her best Table Tennis in her career to date, with wins over Emmanuelle Ferrier and Monique Sirgant from France, both Class 4 athletes. It was the 1st time Christine has beaten Sirgant who is ranked high in her class.
Speaking following her triumphant return from Eger, Doyle stated;
“It’s great that all the hard training over the last few months paid off. As a result I was able to win my first gold medal in class 5 singles at an international tournament, also winning the bronze medal in the team event made the Hungarian Open my most successful tournament to date. This would not have been possible without the support of my team mates and coach Tibor Pofok. Hopefully this will be a springboard for more success in the future”.
Congratulations to all of the players and to coach Tibor Pofok for all of the recent success.
The boys finished in 4th place overall beating Isle of Man 5-0 and Guernsey 4-1. In the other matches the boys were unlucky going down 3-2 against both Wales and Scotland before losing out 3-1 to eventual winners England 3-1 where Gillen picked up a good win over Hugo Pang.
Cadet Girls ( Katie Mc Glone, Rebecca Finn )
The girls finished with a silver medal overall with 5-0 wins over Scotland A and B, Wales and Guernsey. This left a final match with England for gold. Our girls had prepared well but in what can only be described as a strange match they lost out 3-0 having lead 2-0 in two of the rubbers. Silver medal for the girls was still good performance.
Junior Boys ( Tom Davis, Ryan Farrell )
The Boys finished with a bronze medal overall with 5-0 wins over Isle of Man and Guernsey and a 4-1 win over Scotland. It was here where the tournament got very interesting. Our boys had a 2-0 lead against Wales only to lose out 3-2 to the dismay of Irish coach Mark O Flynn. England who also had their own battle with Wales winning 3-2 left our boys knowing any win against England would give them a chance of gold. Ryan Lead the team with wins over Patel and a doubles win with Tom left the Irish with a 2-1 lead. Lawrence beat Ryan 3-0 to leave Tom playing for the match. In a match that had everything Tom himself saving six match points in the 4th ( 2-1 10-4 ) to win 12-10. The 5th could have went either way and Tom who left everything on the table went down 11-7. Top effort from the boys who will gain a lot form this experience.
Junior Girls ( Chloe O Halloran, Hannah Lynch Dawson, Emma Ludlow )
The Girls finished with a silver medal overall with 5-0 wins over Guernsey A and B, Wales and 4-1 win over Scotland. This left our girls in a final match with England for gold. The girls lost out to England 5-0 but will feel that another day they would be capable of more. A silver is still a very good result for our talented Junior Girls squad.
Singles Event
After a very good team meeting with all coaches and players on Saturday evening I felt all our players had chances of medals in the singles. As Sunday morning groups were underway I felt that there was a new air of confidence among our squad lead from new Senior International Ryan Farrell. 8 out of our 9 players progressed to the knockout stage with only Tom Davis falling short who was unlucky with the draw. I must note that it was maybe Toms fighting performance on Saturday evening that inspired our players for the battle in the singles.
Singles Knockout
Cadet Boys
Alex Gillen had a good 3-win over Jac Jenkins in the last 8 before going down not without his chances against European Number 9 cadet Tom Jarvis in the semi. Evin Mc Govern won 3-0 against Josh Stacey in last 16 before going down to Morrison of Scotland 3-1 in the last 8.
Cadet Girls
Both Rebecca and Katie came to the hall on Sunday with some unfinished business. In the last 8 Rebecca beat John of Wales 3-1 and Katie beat Plastow of Scotland 3-0. This left the girls with revenge matches against the girls they had lost to on the Saturday evening. Katie was first to book her place in the final with a confident 3-0 win over Kate Cheer. Rebecca who played her match of the tournament beat Payet 3-2 11-9 in the 5th to book her place in the final. In the final the level was really high with Katie winning 3-1 to be crowned Six Nations Champion. A great performance from both our girls.
Junior Boys
Ryan Farrell beat Blair Fowler 3-0 in the last 8. In the last 4 is where Ryan really showed the level that he is playing at the moment with a fantastic 3-0 win over Lawrence of England. In the final Ryan started slow but fought hard to get into it but it wasn’t to be as he went down 3-0 to Ryan Olyer of Wales. He will feel that the win maybe slipped away but will surely take a lot of confidence from this performance.
Junior Girls
In the last 8 Hannah and Chloe meet and in what was always going to be a tight match Hannah won out in the end 3-1. Emma who was on the other side of the draw lost out to Lucy Elliott of Scotland 3-1. In The last 4 Hannah lost out in 3 sets to Tsaptsionos of England.
Summary
This was a very good performance from our team winning 3 team and 5 individual medals. The players are professional both on and off the table and I believe that this squad will only improve with time. Personally I think none of this would have been possible without the coaches Claire Nelson and Mark O Flynn who really believe in the players and worked very hard over the weekend to ensure that the players had every chance to perform to their best. Overall a great team performance from the players to the coaches.
Newbridge Table Tennis Club in Co Kildare on Sat March 1st was the scene for a round of Stiga Challenger. Formed in Oct of 2013 the club has had a steady growth of players from as young as six all from the surrounding areas. Currently they are based in St Patricks School hall which was the venue for this event.
59 players from various clubs in Leinster including Mountrath, Rathdowney (Laois) Milltown (Westmeath) St Ronan’s (Dublin) Crosspatrick {Kilkenny) and Newbridge entered the event. The day started off with qualifing rounds for each of four divisions all of which were split into two groups. This lead to semi-finals and finals for all. Division 1 provided many exciting matches and after much play the semi-finals brought together Jessie and Katie Hayes in one and Leanne Delaney all (Mountrath) and Benjamin Duffield (Newbridge) in the other. Jessie and Leanne progressed to the final where Jessie took the honours on a 3-0 scoreline. Division 2 semi-finals were contested by Richard Adegboyega (St Ronan’s) v Luke Redmond (Milltown) and Jonathan Kelly (Rathdowney) v Ed Adegboyega (St Ronan’s). Richard and Jonathan progressed with Richard recording a victory over Jonathan in the final. Division 3 brought many younger players into semi-final action. Billy Garrett (Crosspatrick) overcame Conor Gibney (Milltown) while Minh Nguyen (St Ronan’s) had a win over Omar Ramadam (Newbridge). In the final Nguyen took the honours. Division 4 had its own interesting contests for the very young. Teslim Lawal (St Ronan’s) and Darragh O’Grady (Crosspatrick) battled hard as did Rory Garrett (Crosspatrick) and Sean Cong (Newbridge) in the semi finals. Garrett and Lawal contested the final with Lawal finally taking the spoils. Overall it was a most entertaining, well attended action packed table tennis event. Great credit must go to Brenda Duffield of Newbridge ttc who pulled out all the stops in the weeks leading up to the event to get new players from the Co Kildare area and further afield involved. Tournament director Jimmy Hayes was greatly assisted on the day by Amylou, Niamh, Sr. Annette, Fintan, Sharon, Brenda, Pat, Michael and William as table stuarts while Karen and Deirdre made sure food and goodies were available.A big thanks to sponsor STIGA and Tommy Fitzgerald who provided a good spread of prizes on the day.
Certificates of Achievement for Connacht’s Top Juniors
Junior players from Connacht traveled to Breaffy Sports Arena, Breaffy, Castlebar, Co. Mayo on Sunday 9th March for the final Junior Ranking event of the season. It proved to be a spectacular event with both Season Titles and prestigious Interprovincial places up for grabs.
Thomas Joyce (Mayo) and Natasya Barry (Roscommon) were crowned U11 Boys and U11 Girls Connacht Champions 2013 / 2014. David Taylor and Aoife O Dowd who both play from the same club in Sligo were declared U13 Boys & U13 Girls Season Champions respectively. Brian Dunleavy (Mayo), in fantastic form this season, done the double winning both the U15 and U18 Boys Titles. Maria Williams (Mayo) added another U15 Girls Connacht Title to continue her remarkable success in this event. Orla Timlin (Mayo) proved to be almost unbeatable this season capturing U18 Girls Season Title. Martin Edward Ditchburn (Mayo) captured the First U19 Mixed Title which proved to be a popular and successful event this season. All 8 Players were presented with Framed Certificates of Achievement by the Connacht Branch at a special presentation during the weekend.
The Connacht Branch would also like to Congratulate Thomas Joyce, David Taylor and Natasya Barry on being selected for this year’s Primary Schools International taking place in Jersey early April. The best of luck to all THREE players and to Team Ireland!
International Women’s Day is an ideal opportunity to look back on the wonderful achievements of our Female players throughout the 2013/2014 season and to pay tribute to their dedication and commitment to the sport.
Teresa Devaney picked up the Player of the Year award at the 2013 ITTA AGM and continued her form with excellent results at the Veterans Six Nations held in ALSAA in September. She took Gold in the over 50’s and was part of the team that won the silver in the team event. She was joined by Audrey Robinson, Helenna Dennett, Ros Carrpenter, Jennifer Harrison and Sharon O’Brien who all had excellent wins throughout the weekend.
August ‘13 saw Sinead Keon win Gold at the World Dwarf Games in Michigan, USA. She took the top spot in the Open Women’s competition ahead of Joy Stilen (USA) and Kim Dean (GRB). An excellent achievement by Sinead who attributes her success to the dedication of her coaches at Galway Speeders including Rena McCarron Rooney.
The Women’s British Leagueteam of Sabrina Devereux, Emma Ludlow, Hannah Lynch Dawson, Ashley Givan, Meadhbh Slattery and Annalise Walker had some good performances over two weekends playing in Division 1. Star of the team was undoubtedly Hannah Lynch Dawson who won an impressive 8 out of 10 matches.
Katie McGlone continues to go from strength to strength, topping the Senior women’s ranking list this season for the first time. She was the recipient of the Billy Marshal Award presented to the best Junior/Cadet/Under 12 player at the 2013 ITTA AGM following excellent performances at the Slovakia open where she took bronze in the cadet doubles and reached the quarter finals in the cadet singles. She also took bronze in the cadet singles at the Junior/Cadet Six nations and along with Rebecca Finn won team silver improving on last year’s result of bronze.
The Butterfly National Senior Championships last weekend in Limerick produced some really nail biting matches. A new name is on the trophy this year following Emma Ludlow’s win over last year’s Champion Ashley Givan. Katie McGlonemade it all the way to the semi-final, a remarkable achievement for the young cadet.
It was not just on the High Performance end of things that we saw our women in action with a record number of female players attending the Stiga Junior Challenger tournaments all around the country. The schools programmes funded through Irish Sports Council Women in Sport funding are going from strength to strength with more girls getting involved, joining clubs and progressing up the rankings.
Pat Hunter, who is making history herself as the first female Chair of the Irish Table Tennis Assoiation, today said,
” We are delighted on International Women’s Day to celebrate the achievements of our female athletes – as highlighted above. We have some top class female athletes coming through our system, and the significant efforts by our Coaches through the Women in Sport programme has helped to increase female participation in our sport. We are very grateful to the Irish Sports Council for their continued support of this programme – long may it continue, to ensure that girls are encouraged into sport to the same extent as boys.
Sport is a very powerful social change tool because it teaches women confidence, self esteem and strength. Girls who play sports do better in school – socially they learn teamwork, negotiating skills, how to deal with winning and losing, planning and goal setting skills. They become empowered thanks to the social and psychological benefits, as well as the better known general physical health benefits. It is also argued that participation in sport teaches discipline, self-control, self-confidence, independence, and the value of working within rules and structure. So I appeal to all parents to support their daughters’ sports participation in the best way they can!
All in all it has been a successful year for Ireland’s women, long may it continue!
Players from across Ireland descended to the fantastic facilities of the University of Limerick to battle it out for the chance to be National Champion in the 2014 Butterfly National Championships.
The achievement of the weekend would have to be Emma LUDLOW’S brilliant battle to claim her first National Senior title. An achievement that looks ever more extraordinary when she came into the event seeded 6th. At the group stages LUDLOW recorded a significant win over third seed Hannah LYNCH-DAWSON 3-2, which attracted the attention of the watching fans as the two girls’ battled it out. At the quarter final stage she came through a comfortable winner over Marta ZAREBA. The semi-final saw her face the number 1 seed Katie MCGLONE. The match was neck and neck and at 1-1 and the two girls battled hard and in two agonizingly close sets LUDLOW came out on top winning 14-12 and 12-10 to take a 3-1 lead. MCGLONE pulled back the fifth set, but LUDLOW stormed to an early lead in the sixth set and never looked back, she booked her place in the final to face 3 times National Champion Ashley GIVAN.
The final saw LUDLOW take the opening sets 11-9, 11-9 and putting pressure on the experienced GIVAN. The spectators knew the battle wasn’t over and GIVAN pulled back the third 12-10. LUDLOW found another gear in the fourth set and took a 3-1 lead. The fifth set was neck and neck, the score was 9-9 and LUDLOW took the next point to have her first ever National Senior Championship point, GIVAN showed exceptional nerve and took the next 3 points and the set to bring it back to 3-2. However as in the semi-final LUDLOW was determined to wrap up the match, and raced to 10-2 lead. She now had 8 more championship points; but she only needed the one taking her maiden title 4-2. Emma ran straight to her mother Anne who had been anxiously sitting in the stands and a warm embrace from the proud mother was greeted with further applause.
In the Mens Singles, the level was top class and it was very difficult to predict a winner. Remarkably, the semi-final pairings were identical to 2013, with Gavin MAGUIRE facing John MURPHY and Paul MCCREERY facing international team-mate Ashley ROBINSON. Murphy showed his supreme battling skills to push MAGUIRE all the way in an exciting match on the show court which had the crowd on the edge of their seats. MAGUIRE raced in to a 3-1 lead, showcasing his talent as he looked to move to the Final. Murphy is never beaten though and came back to level at 3-3 to set up a final set decider. Having been pushed all the way by Declan O’BRIEN in the Quarter Final, this was a step too far for MURPHY and MAGUIRE showed nerves of steel to progress to the National Senior Final. On the other side of the draw, MCCREERY had progressed all the way to the Semi-Final without dropping a set – he looked focussed and determined to retain his title. He faced Ashley ROBINSON in the semi-final, and looked to avenge ROBINSON’s win from the Under 21s on Day 1. This was a spectacular match with both players playing some outstanding table tennis. McCreery fell 3-2 behind and for a moment he looked like he might relinquish his title. However, he battled back and we had another final set decider – with the margins so fine at this level, the experience of being National champion must have some bearing on the outcome, and McCreery just edged out the impressive ROBINSON to progress to the Final. Many commentators expressed the view that for ROBINSON, he will one day claim this title, but for 2014 we had a re-match of last year’s Final.
The eagerly awaited Final pitted two top class players against each other and they gave a demonstration of skill, athleticism and mental strength to provide a thrilling conclusion to the Championships. Maguire at 3-1 up must have fancied his chances of recording his 2nd National Senior title. McCreery, always composed, found himself battling again as he had done in the Semi-Final. He stepped up a gear that Maguire, on the day, could not match, claiming the 3 remaining sets (3,4,7) to claim a consecutive National title and bring the Eddie Limberg trophy home. The crowd cstood to acclaim both players and McCreery himself jumped on top of the table to celebrate, a mix of joy and relief etched on his face – he had been pushed all the way by Maguire.
In the Veterans, Dariusz Zatylny edged out Daryl Strong to claim the title. Ashley Robinson claimed the Under 21 Men’s Final, with a fine win over McCreery in the Semi-Final and a straight sets win over World Championship team-mate Ryan Farrell in the Final. In the Under 21 Women’s Final, Leeside TTC’s Chloe O’Halloran edged out UCD’s Sarah Timlin in an exciting Final.
In the Doubles, Katie McGlone and John Murphy teamed up – MURPHY had targeted this title as the only National title he had yet to win, and both players showed great strength and quality to claim the title with a win over Givan and Maguire in the Final. Murphy added to his title haul by combining with Paul McCreery to claim the Men’s Doubles title, with a win over Maguire and Robinson. It was great to see Amanda MOGEY back in action after significant injury troubles and she did not leave the Nationals empty handed, combining with Ashly Givan to claim the Women’s Doubles title.
The Para events saw some shock results. 18 Year old Colin Judge, recently confirmed as a member of Paralympics Ireland Fast-Track Panel of athletes, claimed his first National title in a tense Final against Philip Quinlan. Rena McCarron Rooney claimed the Women’s Wheelchair Singles, while Philip Quinlan and Ronan Rooney claimed the Doubles title, following a marathon semi-final over John Finn and Colin Judge and a Final win over Rena McCarron Rooney and Christine Doyle.
In the Class II Singles, UCD’s Kevin Hutchinson was in outstanding form, progressing to a title win without dropping a set, including an impressive win over Paul O’Toole at the Final stage.
Thanks to our wonderful team of volunteers, Event Referee Con O’Ceadaigh, Umpires, Media Team and our Logistics team. Congratulations to the 2014 crop of National Champions.
Full results available here (Knockout Draws) and here.
Shopping Basket
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
