Between the 18th and 20th of April, a team of nine Irish players competed in the annual Oster Cup held in Flensburg, Germany. Ireland competed in the competition along with teams from Germany, Denmark and Sweden. All of the players, performed admirably and showed great grit and determination across the weekend. While the medal positions were out of reach for us on this occasion, there were plenty of highlights during a marathon weekend of action which featured the Irish squad playing in around 150 matches combined across the weekend.
In the Team Event, with group stages played on Friday and final stage on Sunday, our best performers were the Cadet Boys Team 1 (Toby Caldwell, Karsten Close and Belaal Abdelaal) who finished 7th in the overall ranks with impressive wins along the way against teams representing Angby 3 (Sweden) and FraG TT (Germany).
Our Cadet Boys Team 2 (Adam Hedderly, He Ming Duan and Caleb Jiang) also finished in a very commendable 14th place. This was also second position in the consolation, an excellent result for a team who are still U13 and were playing up two years to U15. Wins against FraG TT and Lübeck (both Germany) were among the best moments.
The Junior Boys Team (Euan Hanna, Junior Close and Ben Dickson) also had some positive showings throughout the weekend and ultimately finished in 19th position overall with a win against Kreis Nord 2 (Germany) being the highlight.
We also had some strong showings in the Singles Events held on Saturday. Toby Caldwell and Junior Close progressed through to the Last 16 of the Cadet Boys and Junior Boys competitions respectively, these being our best results on Saturday.
Caleb Jiang had some excellent showings in his debut international progressing through the first group but unfortunately lost out in a very tight Last 32 Cadet Boys group, which included a 3-2 loss to the eventual winner. Karsten Close also navigated his way through the first group but bowed out in the Last 32.
He Ming Duan, also in his debut competition had a good run to the Quarter Finals of the Cadet Boys Consolation.
The Oster Cup was a great learning experience for all of our players who racked up some valued international experience with plenty of matches against high quality opposition. Accompanying coaches, Tom Colvin and Sean Geoghegan were very impressed with the overall work ethic of the team and their cooperation throughout the event. A special shoutout to Belaal, Caleb and He Ming who represented Ireland for the first time. We look forward to seeing how this group progresses into the future!
