March 2012

Table Tennis Ulster

At a superb Butterfly National Senior Championships this weekend, John Murphy and Amanda Mogey beat off all-comers to take Senior National titles home with them.

In the Women's event, Mogey faced UCD's Sarah Timlin in the Semi Final. Mogey raced into an early lead, taking the first three sets and looked to be cruising. Timlin fought back though and with support from her UCD team-mates, took the next two sets, indeed dominating the 5th set on an 11-4 score line. Mogey was clinical and ensured that she pro-gressed to the Final, maintaining her composure to close out the match 4-2. Ashley Givan was superb in her semi-final, defeating Sabina Devereux without ever giving her opponent a chance to get into the match. So the Ulster and Ire-land team-mates faced off in the Final - both have dominated the Senior scene this year. Mogey was in devastating form and the match never really lived up to its billing as Mogey took command from the outset - Givan could not get going and Mogey took the title with a 4-0 win. It was a fantastic performance from Mogey and she looks to be in top form heading towards the World Championships later this month.

In the Men's event, fans were finding it very difficult to predict a winner in what is a very strong section at present. Many felt Gavin Maguire could repeat his 2009 title success and the UCD man looked to be in fine form, claiming the Under 21 title on Day 1 of the event. He faced a very tough Quarter Final against Peter Graham - this was a classic, with Maguire fighting hard to claim a 4-3 victory. He faced Paul McCreery in the Semi-Final - McCreery also many people's favourite for the event. McCreery stepped up his level and Maguire could not repeat his QF heroics - McCreery progressing to the Final. In the other half of the draw, reigning champion John Murphy saw off Mark O'Flynn in a keenly contested QF, while Ashley Robinson defeated ALSAA's Sam Logue. Robinson had recently de-feated Murphy at the Fermanagh Open, but Murphy, an experienced Nationals Campaigner at this stage was very much in the zone, producing some outstanding shots to progress to the Final. One senses that both Maguire and Robin-son will be back again and again over the coming years - both have youth and serious ability in their favour.

And so to what turned out to be the match of the day, if not the season. McCreery claimed a nervy 1st set 11-7, be-fore Murphy levelled the next set by the same score line. McCreery then hit top gear, taking the 3rd 11-4 and then added the 4th to get to just one set away from his first National Senior title. The match now went up a level, Murphy is renowned for his battling abilities and he certainly was not going to give up. Both players scrapped for every point, with Murphy producing several moments of pure class to claw his way back into the game taking the 5th and 6th set to set up a final set decider. Murphy had momentum on his side now and his steely determination to retain his title was visible in every moment of the final set. He took an early lead and never let go, to close out a dramatic match and claim his 5th National Senior title - a phenomenal achievement. McCreery can be rightly proud of his performance and it looks inevitable that the Ulster player will one day be National champion - he has all the attributes in his locker. The day belonged to John Murphy however - a performance full of heart, skill and quality under pressure - a true National Champion

In this issue…...

Fermanagh Senior Open P2

JBL Report P4

World Champs Draw P6

NI Fivemiletown Youth Challenge P8

Ulster Success at Irish Senior Championships

Table Tennis Ulster

Ashley Robinson (Clogher) has truly earned his National selection for the World Table Tennis Champi-

onships in Dortmund in March by claiming a second major title since Christmas, winning the Fermanagh

Open with a resounding three set win over Irish No. 1 John Murphy (Dublin), adding to his Ulster Closed

victory.

Amanda Mogey (Carnmoney), as Irish No. 1, also doubled up with a Fermanagh Women's title in

Fivemiletown and World's selection, finishing the hopes of another young Tyrone star, Ashley Givan

(Dungannon), who is also Germany-bound for the Liebharr Worlds.

Ulster has four of the seven strong Irish team places at the Worlds, with Stiga Ulster Open winner Paul

McCreery (Nottingham University) from Crossgar teaming up with Robinson, Murphy and Gavin

Maguire (Leinster) in the men's side.

Mogey and Givan make up the Women's side, joined by Edel O'Reilly (Ballincollig) on her senior de-

but, with National Coach Peter Neilson (Sweden) in charge of the squad and International Secretary

Ken Strong travelling to Germany as guest of the international Swaythling Club.

Fermanagh Open (at Fivemiletown High School) results:

Men's Singles: Semi-final: A Robinson bt M O'Flynn 3-1; J Murphy by D Strong 3-0; Final: Robinson bt

Murphy 3-0.

Women's Singles: Semi-final: A Mogey bt E Ludlow 3-1; A Givan bt S Devereux 3-1; Final: Mogey by

Givan 3-1

Veteran Singles: Semis: T Pofok (Dublin) bt P Sulkowski (Ballymena) 3-1; W Cherry (Glenburn) bt J

McFaul (Lisburn) 3-0; Final Pofok bt Cherry 3-1;

Class 2: Semis: P Sulkowski (Ballymena) bt B Gamble (Civil Service) 3-0; A Loane (Glenburn) by P

McLoughlin (Ulster) 3-2; Final: Sulkowski bt Loane 3-2

Under 21: Semis: R Farrell (Dublin) bt K Reilly (Cavan) 3-0; D Sulkowski (Ballymena) bt M O'Flynn

(Dublin) 3-1; Final: Farrell bt Sulkowski 3-0

Doubles: Robinson & Murphy bt S Logue & T Pofok 3-1.

Fermanagh Senior Open

March 2012

Nineteen enthusiastic children attended the recent Ulster ‘Futures’ Squad Training camp at Banbridge TTC with children ranging from 8-12 years old under the guidance of 4 current Ulster coaches, Gervis Knox, Ar-nold Morgan, Philip Jamison and Amanda Mogey. Players have been identified throughout the season from schools, regional squads and tournament results from all corners of Ulster with players ranging from Belfast, Ballymena, Broughshane, Newtownabbey, Cavan, Monaghan, Banbridge, Donegal, Coleraine and Island-magee completing the squad. This squad is catered towards those players who have the potential to represent Ulster or Ireland in future years and is the first step on the performance pathway to achieving this goal. The squad meets on a monthly basis and the progression in these players is clear to see with players improving at a rapid rate from one session to the next. The players trained for 4 intensive hours, with every player getting a chance to do multi-ball to refine tech-niques, improve footwork and improve reaction times. Players also had the chance to play with high quality sparring partners. The main theme of the day was to improve consistency, work on footwork, refine tech-niques and ultimately to enjoy their table tennis! Players also had the chance to work on their fitness levels through a series of agility exercises and sprints. A small competition was held for the last hour of the session with Castlerahan’s Jason Zhang winning the boys event defeating team mate Daniel Murdock, and Monaghan’s Lydia McConkey winning the girls event defeating the much improved Emma Wylie from Banbridge. The next session will be held in March, and selected players will be notified as soon as possible. If you know any players aged between 7-12 who are of a relatively good standard who would be inter-

ested in attending this monthly squad, please contact the Talent ID Officer Amanda Mogey who will arrange

for a school or club visit to carry out an initial informal assessment.

Ulster Futures Squad with Coaches Amanda Mogey, Gervis Knox and Phillip Jamieson

Ulster Futures Squad going from “strength to strength

Table Tennis Ulster

Junior British League Report

Page 4

Ulster Junior Table Tennis players had great success in only our second season entering teams in the Junior British Table Tennis League. The League is played in England over 2 weekends (October and February), with 8 Divisions in the Boys League and 4 Divisions for the Girls. Each Division comprises 6 teams with 3 players per team. Teams play each other in a 6 match format over each weekend. A guaranteed 10 matches per weekend for each player makes this a great weekend of table tennis for our young players. The Ulster Boys Team of Kieran Reilly, Trevor Knox and Jonathan Porter, captained by Oliver Reilly, had a great season, taking the title in Division 4A. They had an extremely tense last match against Welsh side Ael Y Bryn, with Trevor Knox coming out victor is the very last game of the last match to secure the title for the team. Two girls teams competed this season. The ‘A’ team included Emma Ludlow, Annalise Walker and guest Scottish player Lucy Elliot. Captained by Jennifer Thompson, the team fought hard and finished a very credible 3rd place in Division 2. The ‘B’ team with Erin Thompson, and sisters Laura and Rebecca Finn played in Division 3 and had a strong second weekend, moving up from 3rd position after the first weekend to take the 2nd place and a sliver medal. A successful weekend was capped off with Ulster’s Laura Finn being named as player of the weekend and receiving lovely trophy (voted on by the umpires of the event). Ulster players also featured in the 2 Irish teams playing in the event, Ashley Givan and Hannah Lynch Dawson helped the Irish Girls finish joint 5th in the very strong Girls Premier Division featuring top Junior players from all over the UK. Stephen Slater played on the Irish Boys teams in Division 2A. The boys narrowly lost out to Sussex Alliance and finished in 2nd position. This is great event for our young players to test themselves against the best in the UK. It is also an extremely well run event, with qualified Umpires at all matches. Our aim in Ulster is to qualify a second boys team also for the 12/13 season so we have 4 teams completing in this superb event next season. Thanks go to Anne Ludlow and Cathryn Gibson who organised all the practicalities for the event and Oliver for acting as NPC for our successful boys team. Roll on next season!! Jennifer Thompson, Technical Officer ITTA (Ulster Branch)

Below are the results from the recent Ulster Primary School Team Finals held at Glenburn. Winners from the Boys and Girls Categories will now be invited forward to participate in the All Ireland Primary Schools Event to be held in Connacht later in the year: U11 B 1. St Clares NS 2. Holy Cross Boys 3. Abercorn PS

4. Cairnshill PS

U11 G 1. Abercorn PS 2. Harding Memorial PS 3. St Clares NS

4. Kilcoan PS

U11 Mixed 1. Model School 2. Ballydown ‘A’ 3. Ballydown ‘B’

4. Cavehill PS

U10 B 1. Holy Cross Boys 2. Edenderry PS 3. Cairnshill PS

U10 G 1. Seaview PS 2. Abercorn PS

U10 Mixed 1. St Clares NS 2. Dromore Central 3. Seaview

Ulster Primary Schools Team Championships 2012

Selection of pictures from the tourna-ment featuring Ballydown A and B team, Abercorn and Holy Cross. Well done to everyone who took part and the winners!

The draw has been announced for the 2012 ITTF Liebherr World Team Championships, to be held this year in Dort-mund, Germany from Sunday 25th March to Sunday 1st April. Ireland’s Men (Murphy, McCreery, Robinson, Maguire) and Ireland’s Women (Mogey, Givan, O’Reilly) will both play in Division Three and have been drawn in the following groups:

Men – Division 3, Group I

1 INDONESIA

2 CYPRUS

3 CHILE

4 LATVIA

5 MOLDOVA

6 IRELAND

This is a tough group for the Irish Men, drawn against top seeds and favourites for promotion Indonesia.

The Irish Women enjoy a higher World Ranking than their male counterparts and are seeded 3 in their Group K where they will be hopeful of recording some good victories.

1 CANADA

2 MEXICO

3 IRELAND

4 IRAN

5 ARMENIA

6 MONGOLIA

Both teams open their Division 3 campaigns on the 25th March, with the men facing Cyprus and the Women taking on Armenia. Keep tuned in to www.irishtabletennis.com for full event preview, results and player interviews as we ap-proach the World Championships

World Championships Draw

Irish Senior Rankings

Top Ten Women

1. Ashley Givan 865 2. Amanda Mogey 855 3. Sabina Devereux 700 4. Sarah Timlin 659 5. Jean Wyse 608 6. Edel O’Reilly 547 7. Katie McGlone 488 8. Annalise Walker 416 9. Theresa Devaney 377 10. Emma Ludlow 375

Top Ten Men 1. John Murphy 1064 2. Paul McCreery 952 3. Ashley Robinson 922 4. Gavin Maguire 825 5. Peter Graham 801 6. Sam Logue 778 7. Mark O’Flynn 755 8. Robert Gavin 710 9. Daryl Strong 602 10. Declan O’Brien 591

NI Fivemiletown Youth Challenge

Over the weekend 40 young table tennis players from across Ireland gathered to compete in the first TableTen-

nisNI.com Fivemiletown Junior Challenger Tournament. The tournament was organized by Gervis Knox, recently ap-

pointed Dungannon & District table tennis sports development officer. The competition brought many players from the

Dungannon & District area along with players travelling from as far as Belfast and Letterkenny.

The event kicked off with initial groups of 5 players, each competing for an overall position to advance to the divi-

sional rounds in the afternoon. The first round involved players of mixed abilities, with the seeded players all advanc-

ing to the top divisions and the other players filtering into division’s two to four.

Divison 1 was highly competitive, with some excellent displays of both attacking play from Emyvale’s Ryan Drayne &

Craigavon’s Harry McGoldrick, alongside the splendid defensive style of Belfast’s James Magrath. After 6 hard

fought matches in the top division it was the defensive supremo James who finished on top with excellent wins over

Ryan and Harry whom finished second and third respectively .

Division 2 again was of a prominent standard and with local topspin attacker Samuel Frazer (Kesh) winning the divi-

sion with victories in all his matches. Runner up went to Craigavon’s Brendan Prunty followed closely in third by Let-

terkenny’s John Gallagher

Division 3 was won by young newcomer Danny McKenna from Emyvale who showed superior class by winning all his

games at his first junior challenger event. Second place went to Alex Armstrong (Kesh) followed closely in third by

Tommy Coulter (Tempo).

Division 4 was split into an A and B sections, mainly comprising of players from local schools including Aughnacloy ,

Dungannon, Kesh & Tempo with many competing in their first tournament. Division 4A was won by Conor McKenzie

(Kesh) with Melvin Gibson (Aughnacloy) in second and Reese Knox (Kesh) in third. Division 4B seen Harry Dane

(Garvery) take top spot with Adam Crawford (Tempo) and Luke Kelly (Emyvale) finishing in second and third place

respectively.

The tournament was well supported with plenty of close matches and fun all round. Local Fivemiletown Academy play-

ers Stephen Slater, Trevor Knox & Jonathan Porter produced a splendid display of exhibition table tennis during the

lunch break to keep all entertained. Alongside the exhibition, the academy players demonstrated different shots and

discussed tactics with the young players to help them progress their own games. A special thanks to TableTen-

nisNI.com, Dungannon & District Council and Ulster Table Tennis for making the event happen. There are provisional

plans to host a similar tournament in the near future. For more information about table tennis in the area please

visit www.tabletennisni.com or contact Gervis Knox on sales@tabletennisni.com.

Table Tennis Ulster

News and Events

Gannaway Challenge

The First Gannaway TT Challenge was held on Saturday 26th March and was a great success. 36 players took part in the Round Robin tourna-ment which is the first organised by the Bangor League since 2006. Results were: Class One Winner Dawid Sulkowski Runner Up: Phillip Wallace Class Two Winner Robin Agnew Runner Up David Coates Class Three Winner Adam McIlmoyle Runner Up: Adrian Pietris. Well done to everyone who organ-ised the tournament!

Harry’s Polish Achievement

13 year old Harry McGoldrick recently com-pleted a week long intensive training camp in Poland which attracted the attention of his local Co.Armagh news-papers. Harry undertook the camp in order to improve his game and said that although it was tough he felt he had reached a higher standard. Well done Harry! Upcoming Coaching Course The ITTA is pleased to an-nounce that an ITTA/Coaching Ireland approved Level 1 Course

will take place on 30th March – 1st April 2012 in Limerick. The course is open to all and may be of particular interest to parents, teachers or club players who wish get involved or to develop table tennis in their locality. The details of the course are as follows;

ITTA/Coaching Ireland Level 1 Table Tennis Coach Course Date/Time: Friday 30th March 2012. 7pm - 10pm Saturday 31st March 2012. 9:30am - 5:30pm Sunday 1st April 2012. 9:30am - 5:30pm Venue: The Factory, Southside Youth Space, Glavone, Limer-ickCost: Approximately 55 euro Tutor: John O’Donoghue, ITTA/CI Coach Tutor, ITTA Level 3 Coach The course will consist of class based seminars along with practical demonstrations of strokes relevant to the course.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to con-tact Rhona in the ITTA office on 01 625 1135

Table Tennis Ulster is sponsored by STIGA and Fitzgerald Table Tennis. The STIGA agent for Ireland is Tommy Fitzgerald and can be contacted at 00353-1-8428744 or by email at tftt@eircom.net. You can also view a range of his products at www.tftt.ie. STIGA sponsor a number of Ulster’s elite players and will have a stand with all the latest equipment and clothing at most of the major tournaments held in Ulster throughout the year.

Phone: 028 90383811

E-mail:

admin@ttulster.co.uk Website:

www.ttulster.co.uk

Table Tennis Ulster

House of Sport, Upper

Malone Road, Belfast, BT9 5LA

Good Luck to the Irish Team travelling to the World Championships!

Upcoming Events 24th March Connaght Junior Open 25th March—1st April World Team Championships (Dortmund Germany) 31st March North Antrim Open 31st March National Vets Championships