Posts in category: TTI News

The Junior and Senior National Championships will be taking place in Kingfisher Club, University of Galway, Newcastle Rd, Galway, H91 X53V on 23rd and 24th March 2024.

More information will be posted closer to the event.

We have been asked by Niall O’Flaherty (Connacht Branch Secretary) that unfortunately the Connacht open 2024 will not be going ahead this year and he hopes to see you all back next year. TTI are currently looking into other options for a ranking event to replace the Connacht open for this season. We will update the clubs and membership as soon this has been arranged. 

Munster Table Tennis were delighted to “unveil” a brand new venue for the Munster Open this year in the Munster Technological University Arena in Cork City. The event took place on the 13th and 14th January. 198 entries from 111 players were received across the 16 different competition categories including U/11 and U/13 Girls for the first time in a number of years. The number of players represents a 30% increase on 2023 and the number of entries is a whopping 80% increase on 2023, proving that table tennis is recovering post Covid. The largest entry was 40 in the Men’s Singles, followed by 24 in the Restricted Singles in the Restricted Singles followed by 15 in both the Women’s Singles and the Para Open categories. The Veterans category was a disappointing 10.

The overall highlight of performances at the Munster Open had to be the competition between Anjali Singh of Ormeau and Emily Flynn of Craigavon over a range of categories. Both won two categories, with the other very often the runner up in those categories – Anjali won the Women’s Singles and U/17 Girls while Emily won the Women’s U/21 and Girls U/19 categories. Another significant pattern was the number of champions from 2023 who successfully defended their titles this year. Tom Davis of DCTT repeated his success with a win in the Men’s Singles, Anjali Singh in the Women’s Singles and U/17 Girls, Paddy Vaughan (unattached) in the Para Open and Ben Watson (Civil Service) in the U/19 Boys. The most successful club over the weekend was a more mixed affair compared to 2023. Leeside had three winners as had Ormeau and Loop. In respect of the inter provincial rivalry, Ulster players won out with 8 winners over Leinster with 5 winners followed by Munster with 3 winners.

Another highlight was the repeat use of live streaming by Club Sportscast to provide live commentary of matches and interviews with players over the two days. Munster TT would like to thank those coaches who offered their services to provide commentary on matches. 

The category winners were:

Senior Men: Tom Davis, DCTT

Senior Women: Anjali Singh, Ormeau

Restricted Singles: Kevin O’Keeffe, Leeside

Vets: Eduardo Da Silva, Loop

Para: Paddy Vaughan, Unattached

U/21 Men: Adam Faulkner, Osmond

U/21 Women: Emily Flynn, Craigavon

U/19 Boys: Ben Watson, Civil Service

U/19 Girls: Emily Flynn, Craigavon

U/17 Boys: Vincent Ni, Loop

U/17 Girls: Anjali Singh, Ormeau

U/15 Boys: Clifford Tan, Loop

U/13 Boys: Karsten Close. Ormeau

U/13 Girls: Samanta Pusinskaite, Leeside

U/11 Boys: Jay Forde, Unattached

U/11 Girls: Samanta Pusinskaite, Leeside

Finally, but not least, thanks go to Tournament Referee, Adrian Brown, and Assistant to the Referee, Niall O’Flaherty, along with Adam Brown who provided IT support, and to the umpires who provided effective management of the many matches played over the weekend.

Pictures below:

The 2024 Munster Open is taking place this weekend on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th of January at the Munster Technological University Arena, Bishopstown, Cork City.

Please see below the draws for the events. Check-in from 8.30am and play starts 9am sharp Saturday and Sunday!

Draws Available to download here:

CHECK IN will be 30 minutes before scheduled start of your first event.

Live Streaming

Live streaming of matches will be in operation at the Munster Open on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th January. Please see link below for streaming.

Table Tennis Ireland – YouTube

Anti-doping Update:

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) 2022 List of Prohibitive Substances has been updated since the 1st of January 2023. Sport Ireland launched the Anti-Doping Digital Wallet Card for 2022. It is essential that all players and support personnel whether coaches, physicians, or doctors attached to clubs or teams, consult this educational card, as well as the closely related Summary of Major Modifications and Explanatory Notes. 

Anti-Doping: https://tabletennisireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Sport_Irl_Digital_Wallet_Card_2022-1.pdf

Enjoy the event and we would like to wish to wish all the players, coaches, officials and volunteers the very best of luck at the weekend! 

Lady Mary Peters celebrated the Ulster Open Table Tennis Centenary Championships Celebrations 1923-2023 with Irish Table Tennis President Pat Hunter, Irish Table Tennis Chairman Arnold Morgan and Ulster Table Tennis Chairman Ranjit Singh. Councilor Allen Ewart NBE and Councilor John Lafferty BE were also in attendance.

In the centenary year of the Ulster Open Championships, it was Ulster’s Paul McCreery and Charlotte Carey from Wales who were the top performers in the Men and Women’s Open Singles, with both players winning the respective titles for the third time.

Ulster’s Phil Wallace started as favourite in the Men’s Masters event and after winning a tight tussle against Paul Gallagher in the QF he survived an epic encounter with Pat McCloughan in the SF coming back from 2-1 down to win in the fifth game. In the other SF Munster’s Philip Shaw got the better of Sylwester Hadjul to reach the final, however, it was the Ulster player who came out on top winning in four games.

In the Women’s Masters Susan Hanlon proved to be too strong for trio Mary Toland, Chui Lin Kwok and Ruth McGilligan.

The Restricted Singles proved to be very competitive which saw Vincent Ni from Dublin go on to win to defeat Tomasz Toman in the final.

In the Para event Jude Sheldon and David McCaughern were involved in some highly entertaining matches, however they both narrowly missed out in qualifying for the SF’s. Paddy Vaughan lifted the title after a thrilling five games win over Para-Olympian Colin Judge.

In the Under 21 Men’s event, Ben Watson played Adam Faulkner and Alex Lo up against his Ormeau clubmate Peadar Sheridan. It was Adam and Peadar who went on to contest the final with Adam winning 11- 8 in the deciding game.

In the Women’s event Lowri Hurd recovered from losing the opening game in her SF against Anjali Singh to win in four games and set up a final with Emily Flynn who edged out Grace Looney in the other SF. In the final Lowri had to come from behind again after losing the first game 13-11 but she recovered to take the next three games and claim the U21 title for the second time in successive years.

The standout performer in the junior events was Ormeau’s highly rated Peadar Sheridan who is currently ranked No.5 in the ETTU standings after a string of impressive performances that includes a silver medal at the WTT event in Podgorica, Montenegro. Having narrowly missed out on winning the U21 title, Peadar claimed both the U19 and U17 Boys titles.

In the U19’s Boys event Peadar gained revenge on Adam Faulkner after his defeat in the U21 final to reach the final.

The U17 Boys event Peadar Sheridan was too strong for Vincent Ni in the final.

Following on from her success in the U21 final, Lowri Hurd completed a double when proving too strong for highly rated young star Grace Looney, who had an excellent win against clubmate Anjali Singh to reach the final.

In the girls U17 SF, Ormeau’s Anjali Singh got the better of Melissa Johnston to set up a final showdown with her clubmate Niamh Mason who reached the final after edging past Rebecca Scott in the other SF. It was Anjali who prevailed in a tightly contested match to win in four games.

In the U15 Boys final, Dublin’s Stefan Bonchev got the better of his older brother Boris to add the Ulster Open title to his growing list of achievements at international events that has seen him move into the top ten in the ITTF U11 world rankings.

In the girls event it was Eimear Hutchinson who got the better of Ahna McDonnell to be crowned U15 Girls champion.

Karsten Close (Boys) and Polly Smith (Girls) were the winners of the U13 events.

In the boys event Karsten defeated clubmate Matthew Bailie in the SF and Adam Hedderly from Loop Club in the final.

In the girls final Polly had to fight for every point to gain victory over Eimear Hutchinson, winning 11-5 in the deciding game.

It was great to see a large entry in the U11 event which was eventually won by Peter Cao from Loop Club who edged out Ormeau’s Tobias Gal in the final.

Full list of results

Men’s Open

1. Paul McCreery 2. Tom Davis 3. Danny Bawja 4. Adam Faulkner

Men’s Consolation

1. Alex Lo 2. Sylwester Hadjul

Women’s Open

1. Charlotte Carey 2. Lowri Hurd 3. Grace looney 4. Emily Flynn

Women’s Consolation

1. Nives Golub 2. Sabrina Xu

Men’s Masters

1. Phil Wallace 2. Philip Shaw 3. Pat McCloughan 4. Sylwester Hadjul

Consolation

1. Fergal O’Hagan 2. David Irwin

Women’s Masters

1. Susan Hanlon 2. Mary Toland 3. Ruth McGilligan 4. Chui Lin Kwok

Restricted Singles

1. Vincent Ni 2. Tomasz Toman 3.Tiago Sauto 4. Mark McAlister

Restricted Consolation

1. Chris Brennan 2. Keith Mooney

Para Senior

1. Paddy Vaughan 2. Colin Judge

Para Junior

1. Aaron Mellows 2. Sam Brennan

Para Consolation

1. David McCaughern 2. Sean Geoghegan

U21 Men

1. Adam Faulkner 2. Peadar Sheridan 3. Ben Watson 4. Alex Lo

U21 Men Consolation

1. Joel Smith 2. Sean Patterson

U21 Women

1. Lowri Hurd 2. Emily Flynn 3. Anjali Singh 4. Grace Looney

U19 Boys

1. Peadar Sheridan 2. Tom Irwin 3. Adam Faulkner 4. Vincent Ni

U19 Boys Consolation

1. Daniel McFaul 2. Conor Sheehan

U19 Girls

1. Lowri Hurd 2. Grace Looney 3. Anjali Singh 4. Niamh Mason

U19 Girls Consolation

1. Lily Parke 2. Rebecca Scott

U17 Boys

1. Peadar Sheridan 2. Vincent Ni 3. Isaac Ellison 4. Aedan McGivern

U17 Boys Consolation

1. Richard Pattison 2. Jude Sheldon

U17 Girls

1. Anjali Singh 2. Niamh Mason 3. Rebecca Scott 4. Melissa Johnston

U17 Girls Consolation

1. Lily Parke 2. Meghan Philip

U15 Boys

1. Stefan Bonchev 2. Boris Bonchev 3. Clifford Tan 4. Aaditya Singh

U15 Boys Consolation

1. Ryan Cairns 2. Jacob Coupe

U15 Girls

1. Eimear Hutchinson 2. Ahna McDonnell

U13 Boys

1. Karsten Close 2. Adam Hedderly 3. Peter Cao 4. Matthew Bailie

U13 Boys Consolation

1. Curtis Rutten 2. Ashvik Nandhakumar Caesar Rao

U13 Girls

1. Polly Smith 2. Eimear Hutchinson 3. Jane Wilson 4. Kelsey Fannin

U13 Girls Consolation

1. Lea Gal 2. Jenny McQuiston

U11 Boys & Girls

1. Peter Cao 2. Tobias Gal 3. Reece Maguire 4. Charlie Nash

U11 Consolation

1. Oisin O’Hare 2. Jack Williamson

The 2024 Junior and Senior Munster Open will take place on Saturday 13th January and Sunday 14th of January at the Munster Technological University Arena, Bishopstown, Cork City.

Entries are now open through our JustGo system and will close at 5pm on Tuesday 2nd January 2024. All players and coaches are advised to read the Entry Form for full details on the events taking place and tournament regulations.

Enter to the event here: https://tti.justgo.com/workbench/public/events?ref=CCC26D1A6B5A5B22B38523038AA35D2585605579

Any queries should be sent to [email protected] AND [email protected]

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island, Cork City have asked that room bookings at the special rate for the Munster Open be made by Friday 22nd. People can book themselves at [email protected] or through the reservations manager – Siobhan Shaw –  at [email protected]. When booking please quote Munster Table Tennis.