Irish International Amanda Mogey just pipper her international team-mate Ashley Givan to finish the season as Ulster’s No.1 Ranked female player. In the Men’s final ranking list, Peter Graham of Queens beat fellow Queens player Phillip Wallace to the top spot.
Eastpoint TTC’s Ryan Farrell captured a remarkable double in taking the Junior and Cadet Boys Titles at the Butterfly National Junior Championships in ALSAA over the weekend. In the Junior’s, Farrell beat Ulster’s Stephen Slater on a 3-1 scoreline, while in the Cadet final, the young Dubliner overcame a strong onslaught from Club Donic’s Conor Mullally to take the title in straight sets.
In the Junior Girls, Ulster’s Ashley Givan continued her superb form this season in taking the title on a 3-1 scoreline over Mayo’s Sarah Timlin. The title confirms the 15 year old as the number one player this season after her win in the Butterfly National Seniors last month. In the Cadet Girls, Katie McGlone rounded a fantastic weekend for Dublin’s Eastpoint Club in taking the title in straight sets over Glenburn’s Emma Ludlow.
In the Under 12 competitions, Zak Wilson was triumphant in the Boys with a win over Alexander Gillen of Kilkelly in Connacht. In the Under 12 Girls, Rebecca Finn followed up on her great performance at the Primary Schools International to claim the title with a win over Connacht’s Orla Timlin. The Under 10 competition allows players get the feel of plaing a ational event – the emphasis ins on fun and coaching is not allowed. Some great matches were played in this competition, with Kate Whelan of Ballyroan and James Kelly of West Cork claiming the titles.
Junior Boys : 1. R. Farrell ; 2. S. Slater ; 3. M. Finlay.
Cadet Boys : 1. R. Farrell ; 2. C. Mullally ; 3. B. Kelleher.
U12 Boys ; 1. Z. Wilson ; 2. A. Gillen ; 3. B. Dunleavy.
U10 Boys : 1. J. Kelly ; 2. P. Cooney ; 3. E. Ditchburn.
Junior Boys Plate : 1. T. Tobin ; 2. D. Webb.
Cadet Boys Plate : 1. D. Scott ; 2. C. Merriman.
U12 Boys Plate : 1. D. Duffy ; 2. J. Daly.
U10 Boys Plate : 1. R. Kelly ; 2. K. Wang.
Junior Girls : 1. A. Givan ; 2. S. Timlin ; 3. E. O’Reilly.
Cadet Girls : 1. K. McGlone ; 2. E. Ludlow ; 3. H. Lynch Dawson.
U12 Girls : 1. R. Finn ; 2. O. Timlin ; 3. E. McGlone.
U10 Girls : 1. K. Whelan ; 2. J. Hayes ; 3. D. Brady.
Junior Girls Plate : 1. M. Slattery ; 2. N Treacy.
Cadet Girls Plate : 1. E. McGlone ; 2. S. Cooney.
U12 Girls Plate : 1. K. O’Mahony ; 2. C. O’Shea.
**Photos by Adrian Parkinson, who will be working with the ITTA over the next season as official photographer. Welcome on board Adrian!
Ireland had a triumphant weekend at the 6 Nations Primary Schools Championships in Cardiff this weekend. In the Team event held on Friday evening and Saturday, the Irish Girls claimed gold with some incredible performances, the highlight of which was a 7:3 victory over England. The team, made up of Marie Williams, Rebecca Finn, Nga Nguyen and Kerry O’Mahoney all played fantastic table tennis to bring the gold back to Ireland. NPC for the weekend was Anne Ludlow who was understandably delighted with her charges;” The squad of Irish players behaved and performed fantasically. The players should all be proud of their achievements at this amazing event.
For the girls to win Gold for was a brilliant result. Even though the match scores may look straight forward, each individual game was hard fought and the girls put in 100% effort and support for their team mates – 44 wins out of 50 is pretty good going!
The boys team played excellently to grab the Bronze medal, with joint favourites England and Scotland claiming Gold and Silver. The boys knew going into their last match that they were under pressure to get at least a draw for that medal but went one better and got the win.
The Boys and Girls were a great squad to take away and are a credit to their parents and clubs.”
The Boys were also on the hunt for medals, with Connacht trio Martin Williams, Brian Dunleavy and Martin-Edward Ditchburn and Leinster’s Conor Gallagher all in top form. Recording wins over Jersey, Isle of Man and Guernsey, the team suffered a narrow 6:4 defeat to Scotland before securing a dramatic 5:5 draw with their Welsh hosts, finally succumbing to a strong England team. This left them in Bronze medal position, which represents an improvement over 2010’s performance and the team will be delighted to bring home some medals. A celebratory pizza was had by the teams who were in jubliant form!
The Singles on Sunday again saw the Irish girls perform strongly. Late call-up Marie Williams was in sensational form and progressed to the Final where she lost to Kate Roberts of Wales. Finn and Nguyen were eliminated at the semi-final stage and claimed bronzes. 3 of the 4 medals on offer went to the Irish girls – surely a strong team for the future. The Boys had a tougher time but will have learned massively from their first international experience.
See attached provisional rankings following three Leinster Junior ranking events. These rankings are provisional and will be amended to take account of exemptions for players who missed Leinster junior events due to foreign travel with Irish squads. Click here to download.
Last weekend saw the best of Irish provincial talent at Under 21, Senior and Veteran level play for the title of Interprovincial Champions at UCD Sports Centre in Dublin. This year’s event was hosted by the Leinster Branch and they were seeking to claim victory on home ground.
In the Under 21’s, Leinster’s bright young stars delivered the title with some excellent displays. Against Munster, despite a spirited showing from Niamh Buttimer and Deirdre Murphy who claimed 4 points, Leinster claimed a 6-4 victory – O’Rourke and Syzsmanski of St.Johns and Flood of UCD all in inspiring form. A welcome return to action in the Under 21’s for Ulster’s Claire Nelson wasn’t enough to stop Leinster as they claimed a 6-3 victory and confirmed the title. Julie-Anne Forbes recorded a good win in the tie of the match – a titanic 5 setter against Rebecca Irwin.
In the Veterans, Leinster again claimed the title – not without fighting off a spirited charge from Ulster in a tie that went to the final match between Kevin Mackey and Norman Nabney. Ulster’s Pawel Sulkowski recorded excellent victories over Pemberton and the legendary Tommy Caffrey – Sulkowski was to be later named Tommy Caffrey Player of the tournament – so it was apt that he faced off against the great man to earn this award. Aside from the excellent play, this match will also be remembered for the outstanding sportsmanship on display – William Cherry giving up a point at a crucial stage of his match with Tommy Caffrey exemplifies the spirit that the Interpros should be played in. Mackey held his nerve to close out a thrilling 5-setter against Nabney to secure the title for Leinster. Ulster claimed 2nd place, with Munster in 3rd.
In the Seniors, again Ulster and Leinster dominated Munster and Connacht. Highlights for Munster were Declan O’Brien’s wins over Gavin Maguire and Daryl Strong. Edel O’Reilly also battled hard to claim a thrilling 5-setter over Sabina Devereaux. However the defining match was in Session 3 where Leinster and Ulster clashed. Ashley Robinson (Clogher), along with Amanda Mogey (Carnmoney) and Ashley Givan (Dungannon) were the Ulster Senior stars, remaining undefeated throughout the 3 series event, but Robinson was the undoubted star as he reversed the National Championship final to take out John Murphy 3-2, setting Ulster on the winning way. Gavin Maguire(UCD) claimed a point with a win over Daryl Strong and National Champion Murphy showed his class to defeat Peter Graham to leave Ulster 4:2 ahead. Amanda Mogey claimed the vital 5th point for Ulster with a win over Devereaux before Robinson completed his tournament with a win over Maguire.
Speaking in the aftermath of a succesful event, Leinster Chair Richar Butler stated;
‘The Leinster Branch was pleased to host this event, our thanks go to Tony Martin, Event Referee, and his team; to UCD for the use of their facilities; and to Bewleys Hotel for their hospitality at the Championship dinner. We congratulate all the players who got the opportunity to represent their province, with special congratulations to the Ulster team on achieving 3 in a row in the Senior event, and also to the Leinster teams for their 11 in a row in the Veterans, and their 9 in a row in the U21 Championships”.
Full results available here
For the third successive year the IWA National Table Tennis Championships was held in partnership with the Irish Table Tennis Association National Championships at the excellent ALSAA sports complex Dublin Airport.
Playing commenced at 9.30am with Wheelchair Men’s and Ladies Single’s as usual at any wheelchair event players were determined to prove their worth and they provided an excellent days Table Tennis of the highest standard.
In the ladies Kathleen Reynolds was looking to hold on to her title with wins over Eimear Breathnach and ever improving Christine Doyle, But it was the raider from the west in the shape of Rena Mc Carron Rooney who came through the day beating all before her without dropping a set, and take her first National Ladies Title a measure of the improvement in her game over the last year.
In the Men’s competition Michael Cunningham was there to retain his title but several of his rivals had other ideas.
In a nail biting battle semi final John Finn lost out to training partner Paul Mc Evoy in a close 5 setter. While in the other semi John Dempsey tried to contain the attacking capabilities of Mick Cunningham, Mick proved to strong and went on to meet Paul Mc Evoy in the final played on center court winning an entertaining best of 7 set match 4 nil. New recruit Gareth Greene made his debut in this event with a performance showing his potential for the future
In after noon the mixed doubles competition was held this time Mick Cunningham teamed up with John Dempsey to win this event in a top class match beating the Hungarian Open bound pairing of Ronan Rooney and Philip Quinlan.
National Coach Paul Dolan felt it was an excellent day’s table tennis with some great performances from individual players and a great preparation for squad members travelling to the Hungarian Open this week as part of their Paralympic qualification program.
NEWSFLASH – Hungary Open Results
Philip Quinlan narrowly missed out on a gold medal in the Class 1 Mens losing a hard fought final and takes a Silver medal.While in the Ladies Class 1/2 Rena Mc Carron Rooney brings home the Bronze.Rooney and partner Eimear Breatneach reach semi final ladies double on Sunday.
The TT players from England followed their rugby counterparts in securing top spot at the Junior and Cadet Six Nations Championship in UL Sports Centre, Limerick over the weekend.
Taking 2 gold, in the Cadet Boys and Junior Girls, and a silver in the Cadet Girls, the English proved too strong against their international opposition in the key matches. Ireland, having secured a record four golds in the team event at last years Senior Schools International in the same venue, had to settle for a silver in the Junior Boys and two bronze in the two Girls events.
In the singles, England took a further 2 golds, Gray, & Weerasinghe, while Carey of Wales and Loveridge of Guernsey took gold in the girls event. Ulster players Ashley Given & Ashley Robinson were best of the Irish as beaten semi-finalists, claiming bronze medals.
The ITTA would like to thank its outstanding team of volunteers who played a massive role in delivering a top quality international tournament – Tony Martin and Con O’Ceadaigh our Referees, ITTUA Umpires, Shay Logue, Liam O’Ceallaigh and Anna Kelly. Thanks also to our NPCs and to all of the staff at University of Limerick and the various hotels utilised over the weekend.
Full results are available here
In the build up to this weekend’s Junior and Cadet Six Nations tournament at the University of Limerick we took a trip to Limerick to visit schools registered with our particiaption programme. Coaching will begin in these schools in the coming weeks so this was an ideal opportunity to show the students what they have signed up for.
Ryan Farrell (Cadet No.1) and Conor Beades (Junior No.5) put on an entertaining exhibition with lots of rallies, long range shots and trick shots that had the students enthralled.
In Our Lady of Lourdes, Rosbrien, 4th, 5th and 6th class got to see the top international players display their skills while at Gaelscoil Sheoirse Clancy the students of 4th and 5th class were invited to try their luck against Ryan and Conor with many showing great potential and one or two even winning points against the International players!
Our final visit of the day was to Corpus Christ National School in Moyross and here again the students were treated to skillful display by the two Irish internationals. After the session students got to ask the boys questions about their experience of playing table tennis at such a high level. They were interested to know how much training the boys did, if there was any kind of special diet they had to follow and whether or not they thought they have a good chance of winning at the weeknd.
All the students were invited to come along to UL at the weekend and support the Irish team in what promises to be an entertaining and action packed three days. Admission is free, click here for the playing schedule.
The Ulster Branch has released its latest Junior Ranking List…Click here to download.
UCD’s John Murphy and Clogher TTC’s Ashley Givan were crowned National Champions in their respective singles at the Butterfly National Senior Championships which took place in ALSAA Sports Complex, Dublin, over the weekend.
In the men’s singles, Murphy, the top seed and Irish number 1, overcame the ever improving Ashley Robinson (Fivemiletown TTC) by 4 sets to 1 in a highly entertaining final. Robinson, still eligible at Junior level, showed his quality throughout the tournament. However, when it came to the final, the more experienced Murphy, who now has 4 National singles titles, took control, preventing his younger opponent from gaining a foothold. The key moment in the match came in the 2nd set, where Murphy withstood wave after wave of pressure to clinch the set 15-13. Despite Robinson taking the third, Murphy took the fourth and powered his way to secure yet another National title. Murphy, such a dominant force in Irish Table Tennis, was ecstatic with his victory, acknowledging the appreciative crowd after the final point, he ran to his corner to hug his delighted father.
Afterwards, Murphy commented that ‘Growing up, I always dreamt of winning an Irish title, and now with 4, its an amazing feeling. It was a hard match, and I had to draw on all my experience to get through’. Speaking of his opponent, Murphy added that ‘Ashley is an amazing talent, and I have no doubt he will be back to take the title within the next few years’
Murphy’s path to the final was fraught with potential dangers. In the quarters, he had to endure an onslaught from Ballincollig TTC’s Declan O’Brien, before taking it 4-2, while in the semis, the UCD man repeated the scoreline in defeating his Irish International team mate, Paul McCreery (Glenburn) who has returned to the Irish scene following a 6 week injury.
In the Women’s singles, Ashley Givan defied the odds to clinch a thoroughly deserved victory over seasoned International and Irish Number 1 Amanda Mogey on a 4-1 scoreline. Both players were acutely aware of each others game, but Givan took the risks and played the big points in fearless fashion to retain the crown she won last year as the youngest ever champion. In the semi-finals, she swept aside the spirited efforts of Jean Hughes in straight sets, while Mogey ended the hopes of Sabina Devereaux (Wexford) on a 4-2 scoreline.
In the under 21 Men’s singles, Paul McCreery overcame his International team-mate Gavin Maguire (UCD) by 3 sets to 1 in a cagey encounter. The Ulsterman was in imperious form, not dropping a set on his way to the final. Maguire, on the other hand was forced to dig deep against fellow Dubliner, Ryan Flood (UCD), in a pulsating semi-final clash, fighting back from a seemingly unassailable 5-0 deficit in the deciding 5th game to clinch it 11-9.
In the under 21 Womens singles, Mayo’s Sarah Timlin clinched the title defeating Dubliner Clodagh McCullagh (York Road TTC) in the final.
