Schools International Table Tennis Championships National Arena, University of Limerick, Limerick
Two Irish players contest Under-18 Boys Final by M.Healy The National Arena, Limerick University was the venue for the Schools International Table Tennis Championships, which was held on Fri 25th to Sun 27th June 2004. This is the third time that the event was hosted in Ireland and it is the first time that it was held outside Dublin. The magnificient playing arena which accommodated twenty tables for the event and the superb accomodation on the campus made this a very enjoyable event for players, coaches, organisers and spectators. The tournament referee was Mr Ken Armson MBE from England.

Failte Ireland, The National Tourism Development Authority were sponsors for the event. Teams from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Guernsey and Isle Of Man took part. Group team matches began at 6pm on Fri evening with the individual event beginning at 6pm on the Sat concluding with the finals on Sun. The Irish Teams performed very well with two players, Na Ning and John Murphy, reaching the final of the Under-18 Boys individual competition.

In the Under -18 Boys Team event Ireland A (Na Ning, John Murphy and Conor Nolan) finished first in their Group with 5-0 wins over Scotland A and England B. The Ireland B team ( Ross Cullen, Killian Healy and Wayne Crawford) finished third in their group with a good 3-2 win over Scotland B and losses to England A and Wales A. In the Semi Finals Wales A had a 3-2 victory over Ireland A and England A beat England B by the same margin. In the Final England A had a 3-2 victory over Wales. In the individual event Na Ning beat Chris Brown of England 3-1 in one semi-final and John Murphy beat Robert Lemon of England 3-0 in the other to set up an all-Irish Final. This turned out to be an exhibition of the game with many long rallies with Ning winning in four sets. Conor Nolan reached the quarter finals only to lose to Robert Lemon. In the doubles event Murphy/Nolan (Irl) reached the semifinals where they lost to Gertsen/Howell (Wales), who had earlier beaten Crawford/Healy(Irl). Ning/Cullen (Irl) lost to Lemon/Young (Eng) who in turn lost to Marples/Brown(Eng) in the semifinal. The final was won by Marples/Brown from Gersen/Howell.

In the Under-16 Boys event Ireland A (Ed Wrynn, Gervis Knox and Shane Dolan) finished second in their group with a 3-2 win over Guernsey and a loss to England A. In the nextround Ireland A lost to England B for a place in the semifinals.In the other Group Ireland B (Niall McDonnell, Shane Foster and Ryan Flood) finished third with losses to Wales A and Scotland B. In the Semi-finals England A beat Scotland A and England B beat Wales A. The final was won by England A. In the individual event Ed Wrynn reached the Quarter Finals where he lost to Ben Barlow of England. Ben went on to contest the final but lost out to fellow countryman Daniel Reed in three sets. In the doubles Knox/Guy (Irl) lost to Avery/Alderson (Wales) and Wrynn/Dolan lost to Johnston/Main(Sco) in the quarterfinals. The final was won by Darren Reed/Barlow (Eng) from Daniel Reed/Crawford (Eng)

In the Under-14 Boys team event Ireland A (Keith Knox and Mark O'Flynn) finished 2nd in their group with wins over Wales and Guernsey and a loss to England A. Ireland B (Patrick Guy, Daniel Keenan and Gavin Maguire) finished third in their group with losses to Scotland and England. Ireland A lost out to Scotland A 3-1 for a place in the semifinals. England A beat England B 3-2 in one semi and Wales beat Scotland 3-2 in the other. In the final England A had a victory over Wales. In the singles event Keith Knox reached the quarter finals where he lost to David Owen of Wales. David then lost the semi to Damien Nicholls (Eng) and Dorian Robinson won the other semi from Craig Howieson (Scotland). Dorian won the final by beating his fellow countryman David Nicholls in four sets. In the doubles Owen/Hall (Wales) has a three set victory in the final over Nicholls/Evans (Eng). Knox/O'Flynn(Irl) and Keenan/Maguire (Irl) reached the quarterfinals.

In the Girls Under-18 team event Irleand A (Rachel O'Connor and Amanda Mogey) finished fourth in their group with a win over Scotland A and losses to England A & B. However, Scotland A went on to win this event from England B. In the singles Amanda Mogey reached the semifinal where she lost out 11-7 in the fifth set to Karin Eggar of Scotland. In the other semi Gemma Chapman (Eng) beat Laura Rumgay (Scotland). Gemma won the final with a four set victory over Karin 12/10, 11/5, 5/11, 13/11. In the doubles event O'Connor/Mogey reached the semifinals but lost to eventual winners Wilson/Radford (Eng) who beat Eggar/Rumgay (Sco) in the final.

In the Under-16 Girls team event Ireland A (Amy Tobin and Fiona Mernagh) finished third in their group with a win over Guernsey and losses to England and Wales. In the other group Ireland B finished second with a win over Scotland A 3-2 and a loss to England B. In the Semifinals Wales A had a victory over Ireland B and England A beat England B. The final was won by Wales. In the singles Naoimi Owen (Wales) beat Sarah Perks (Eng) in one semifinal and Sarah Hall (Wales) beat Gemma Yarnley (Eng) in the other. Naoimi beat Sarah in the final in three sets. In the doubles Owen/Hall (Wales) won the final from Yarnley/Perks (Eng) in three sets. Tobin/Mernagh (Irl) and O'Donnell/O'Donnell reached the quarterfinals.

In the Under-14 Girls team event Ireland A (Jenny O'Donnell and Susan Nealon) finished second with a good 3-2 win over Wales A and a loss to England. Ireland B won their group with wins over Guernsey and Scotland.

Unfortunately the two Irish teams then met in the next round with Ireland A advancing to the semifinals where they lost 2-3 to England . The other semi was won by England A over Scotland A. The final saw a victory for England A. In the singles semifinals Emma Vickers (Eng) overcame Caroline Hollows (Eng) and Rachel Jameson (Eng) beat Rebecca Russell (Sco) in a fine five setter. Emma won the final in four sets. In the doubles O'Donnell/Nealon(Irl) reached the semifinals only to lose to eventual winners Vickers/Hallows(Eng) who beat Paine/Godfrey (Wales) in the final. Nelson/Forbes(Irl) reached the quarterfinals.

Overall it was an encouraging Irish performance with many players competing well at this level and many involved in closely fought five setters.

2004 Schools' Invitation International Thanks to ESTTA for results
Limerick, Ireland 25th - 27th June 2004
Participating Teams: England, Guernsey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland & Wales
RESULTS
BOYS' UNDER 18
1st England 'A' (Shaun Marples/Chris Brown)
2nd Wales
3rd Ireland 'A' (John Murphy, Na Ning, Conor Nolan)
4th England 'B' (Rob Lemon/Hamish Yeung)

BOYS' UNDER 16
1st England 'A' (Danny Reed/Ben Barlow)
2nd England 'B' (Jonathon Crawford/Darren Reed)
3rd Wales
4th Scotland

BOYS' UNDER 14
1st England 'A' (Damien Nicholls/Dorian Robinson)
2nd Wales
3rd England 'B' (Chris Doran/William Maybanks/Myles Evans)
4th Scotland

GIRLS' UNDER 18
1st Scotland
2nd England 'B' (Gemma Chapman/Lisa Radford)
3rd England 'A' (Claire wilson/Cherith Graham)
4th Ireland 'A' (Rachel OConnor, Amanda Mogey)

GIRLS' UNDER 16
1st Wales
2nd England 'A' (Sarah Perks/Emily O'Sullivan)
3rd England 'B' (Gemma Yarnley/Stella Davies)
4th Ireland 'A' (Amy Tobin, Fiona Mernagh)

GIRLS' UNDER 14
1st England 'A' (Emma Vickers/Rachel Jamieson)
2nd England 'B' (Caroline Hallows/Laura Yarnley)
3rd Ireland 'A' (Jenny ODonnell, Susan Nealon)
4th Scotland

INDIVIDUALS
BOYS' UNDER 18
Winner Na Ning (Ireland) Runner-up J. Murphy (Ireland)

GIRLS' UNDER 18
Winner G. Chapman (England) Runner-up K. Eggar (Scotland)

BOYS' UNDER 16
Winner D. Reed (England) Runner-up B. Barlow (England)

GIRLS' UNDER 16
Winner N. Owen (Wales) Runner-up S. Hall (Wales)

BOYS' UNDER 14
Winner D. Robinson (England) Runner-up D. Nicholls (England)

GIRLS' UNDER 14
Winner E. Vickers (England) Runner-up R. Jamieson (England)

DOUBLES - WINNERS
BOYS' UNDER 18 N.Ning/J.Murphy (Ireland)
GIRLS' UNDER 18 C.Wilson/L.Radford (England)
BOYS' UNDER 16 D.Reed/B.Barlow (England)
GIRLS' UNDER 16 N.Owen/S.Hall (Wales)
BOYS' UNDER 14 D.Owen/S.Hall (Wales)
GIRLS' UNDER 14 E.Vickers/C.Hallows (England)

Welsh Gold By Malcolm MacFarlane
The Men’s Doubles Semi-finals saw Adam Robertson and Ryan Jenkins take apart the Australian pair who themselves had easily beaten Alan Cooke and Bradley Billington in the Quarter Finals. Adam and Ryan took the match 11-8, 11-6, 11-7. The other Semi Final saw a really tense and close contest between Xavier Therian and Pierre-Loc Hinse from Canada and Chan Koon Wah and Muhd Shakirin Ibrahim of Malaysia, the Malaysians finally winning 11-7, 11-13, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10.

In the Final once again Adam and Ryan were unstoppable and won the first ever Welsh senior gold medal 11-9, 11-4, 11-9.

COMMONWEALTH CHAMPIONSHIPS
Three Scots swept into the knockout stages at the Commonwealth Championships in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Gavin Rumgay, Stewart Crawford and Niall Cameron all progressed after winning two qualifying group matches.

But Euan Walker missed out on the next round after losing 3-1 to England star Andrew Rushton.

Indian men win Commonwealth Table Tennis gold
Indian men created history in the 16th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship at Cheras in Kuala Lumpur by claiming the gold medal in the team event for the first time.

The four-member team led by Achanta Sharath Kamal overcame the challenge posed by championship favourite and nine time winner England 3-1, according to a release issued by Table Tennis Federation of India on Friday.

Soumyadeep Roy emerged the main architect of India's impressive run with two wins while Subhajit Saha won the other match.

In the last championship held at New Delhi in 2001, India was the runner up while in the last Commonwealth Games at Manchester, the country won the bronze medal.

India stormed into the final by winning almost all the matches decisively. In the team event, it had lost only two matches.

In the preliminary stage, India overcame Northern Ireland and Scotland 3-0, while in the secondary stage it defeated Malaysia and New Zealand 3-0 and Wales 3-1 to enter the final as the group topper.

Wales beat Australia 3-0 to claim the bronze medal in men's team event.

Earlier, a five-member women's team led by Poulami Ghatak effected a 3-0 victory over England to claim the bronze medal in the team event.

Northern Ireland back on song 24 June 2004
NORTHERN Ireland bounced back from a disappointing start at the 16th Commonwealth championships in Malaysia to clinch two convincing successes over Isle of Man and Jersey.

Jason Sugrue, Andrew Dennison and Wallace Mahaffy brushed aside the Manx trio of Julian Brecliffe, Andrew Horne and Robert Comber, without dropping a set to record the 3-0 scoreline.

Meanwhile, RBAI pupil Peter Graham was sitting his GCSE Physics in the elite Alice Smith School and rushed back to face Jersey.

Graham overcame the Jersey No. 1, Eugene Ellis, in four sets, while Sugrue saw off Paul Marshall and the energetiic Mahaffy had a straight sets win over Trevor Lefebure.

This Ulster Squad are still smarting over the narrow defeat by Scotland, after seeing the Scots take third seeds England to a tense 2-3 defeat.

Meanwhile Wales ousted the fancied Canadian team, leaving the Northern Ireland quartet with the prospect of playing the Canadians for ninth place.

Brunei, Canada and Cyprus are the next opponents in the National Badminton Centre in Kuala Lumpur followed by Sri Lanka.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia had to settle for the silver again in the women’s team event of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships after losing 0-3 to neighbours Singapore in the final at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium in Cheras here last night.

At the last championships in New Delhi three years ago, Malaysia also lost 0-3 to Singapore in the final. It was Singapore’s fourth consecutive title.

Schools International Table Tennis Championships
The National Arena, Limerick University is the venue for the Schools International Table Tennis Championships, which is being held on Fri 25th to Sun 27th June 2004. This is the third time that the event is hosted in Ireland and it is the first time that it has been held outside Dublin. There are many things that made that possible and not least among those is the magnificent University Arena. Neasa O'Donnell and the staff have been tremendous to work with and have contributed greatly to the organising of the event. Another huge factor is the superb accommodation on the campus and the tireless work of Dolores Hanly in helping and facilitating the booking and liasing with the organising team. Failte Ireland, The National Tourism Development Authority are sponsoring the event and STIGA and Tommy Fitzgerald Table Tennis are also supporting the event. Teams from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Guernsey and Isle Of Man will be taking part. Games will be played on twenty tables over the three days.The tournament referee is Mr Ken Armson MBE from England. Group team matches begin at 6pm on Fri evening with the Quarter Finals scheduled for 1.30 pm on Sat, Semi-finals at 3.15 and the Finals at 5pm. The individual event begins at 6pm on the Sat with the finals scheduled for Sun evening.

Under 14 Boys A Keith Knox, Mark O'Flynn NPC John ODonoghue

Under 14 Boys B Patrick Guy, Daniel Keenan, Gavin Maguire, NPC Colin Byrne

Under 16 Boys A Ed Wrynn, Gervais Knox, Shane Dolan, NPC Marcus MCDonnell

Under 16 Boys B Ryan Flood, Shane Foster, Niall McDonnell, NPC Andrew Blanch

Under 18 Boys A John Murphy, Na Ning, Conor Nolan, NPC Colum Slevin

Under 18 Boys B Wayne Crawford, Ross Cullen, Killian Healy, NPC Brian Fitzgerald

Under 14 Girls A Jenny ODonnell, Susan Nealon, NPC Eamonn Nealon

Under 14 Girls B Claire Nelson, Julie Ann Forbes, NPC Phyllis Kenny

Under 16 Girls A Amy Tobin, Fiona Mernagh, NPC Arthur Brett

Under 16 Girls B Ciara O'Donnell, Aileen O'Donnell, NPC: Sabrina Conway

Under 18 Girls A Rachel OConnor, Amanda Mogey, NPC: Teresa Devaney

Team Manager Colm Slevin

International Youth Championships Hasselt Belgium Results:
Boys Group C: The team came third in their group of 4 beating NTTB ZuidWest of Holland. In the 9-16 place play-offs Ireland lost 3-4 to Essonne of France and then went on to beat another French team Meurthe et Moselle 4-3. In their final match playing for 11/12 Ireland lost 4-0 to Dutch team Arboned-Westa

Boys Group D: The team came 4th in a group of 6. In the 19-24 place play offs Ireland beat Arnhem/Nijmegen 1 from Holland 4-2 and then lo st to Essonne 2 (FRA) 4-2 to finish 20th.

Girls Group C: The team came 3rd in a group of 4 and went into the 7-12 place play offs beating Meteor Bree (BEL) 3-0 in their first match and Oetrange (LUX) in their second to finish 7th.

Girls Group D: The team finished 1st in a group of 5 and had a bye into the semi finals where they lost to Wrocdaw 1 (POL) the eventual winners 3-0. The girls then lost 3-0 to TOGB (NED) to finish 4th.

A team from Ballina also took part for the first time and finished 2nd in a group of 4 in their first round and then finishing 11th overall after beating TSV Betzingen 3-2 in their last match.

Irish Teams:
Under-12 Girls Jenny O'Donnell, Susan Nealon, Claire Nelson, NPC Phyllis Kenny
Under-14 Girls Fiona Mernagh, Amy Tobin, Fiona Dennett, NPC Jing Yi
Under-12 Boys Paul McCreery, David Budden, Neal O'Flynn, Sam Hanley, NPC Marcus McDonnell
Under-14 Boys K. Knox, Gavin Maguire, Patrick Guy, NPC John O'Donoghue



IRISH LADIES WHEELCHAIR TABLE TENNIS TEAM WIN SILVER IN GERMANY
The Bielefeld Open: Following on from their recent success in Slovenia, Ireland sent a small table tennis team to compete in the Bielefeld Open in Germany last weekend. The ladies team was comprised of Galway's Rena McCarron and Dublin's Kathleen Reynolds. The men's team was made up of Galway's Ronan Rooney and Laois's John Finn.

While the men's team competed well, it was the ladies who once again brought home the silverware. The Irish ladies won silver in this prestigious event. In the face of tough competition, the ladies defeated the home team, Germany's Schippmann and Neubig. They continued their winning ways to beat the English team, Riding and Mitton and Mexico’s Garcia and Sigalo-Lopez. Ireland was eventually defeated by the Dutch duo, Laemers and Paardekam who will compete at Athens this summer.

The Irish team will now concentrate on the domestic training ground for the next few months.

16th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships
The 16th Commonwealth Championships will take place at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between 21 - 27 June 2004.

Entries have been received from 15 Associations in the Team events and a total of 17 Associations for the Individual events.

Play begins with the Team events on Monday, 21 June. The finals of the Team events will be played on Thursday, 24 June. The individual events begin on Friday, 25 June with the finals on Sunday 27 June.

Singapore will be the top seeds to defend their title in the Women's Team event and in the Women's singles the top seed is Zhang Xue Ling of Singapore with Miao Miao of

Australia in second place. Information on the Men's seeding will be provided as soon as final team compositions have been confirmed. In the absence of Nigeria who won the Men's Team championship in New Delhi in 2001, and Matthew Syed of England and Chetan Baboor of India who played such an incredible match in the Men's Singles final in 2001, the field is open. However, Alan Cooke, the English Champion who previously won the Championship in 1989 in Wales, must be in with a good chance

A General Meeting of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation will be held on Wednesday, 23 June at the Maluri Hotel at 10.00 am.

For further information and results of the Championships, please check the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation website at www.comtab.com

Irishman wins Two World Titles
Bertie Levinge returned home to Cork from Japan with two very precious World Gold Medals tucked into his bag. The sprightly octogenarian finally laid to rest his past ghosts and disappointments by beating Yorkshire based Les D'Arcy in the men's over 80 final. Bertie nearly saw another opportunity slip through his hands as D'Arcy took a 2 set lead. Bertie had prepared hard in order to meet and defeat his nemesis who had beaten him 3 sets to 0 at their last meeting in the European's and the match looked to be moving that way again. However with some sound sideline advice Bertie came out in the third with a new tactic and determination.

Slowing things down and gradually getting used to the very tricky D'Arcy service the Cork man took the third easily, surprising himself and his opponent in equal measure. The forth saw a D'Arcy revival as he began to deal move effectively with Bertie's defensive strategy, hitting through the ball with his long pimpled backhand. However Bertie had seen too many past opportunities to let this one slip away. With the experience gained in the World finals in Manchester 1998 and Denmark in 2001and over 70 years of table tennis in his blood he took the fourth set to bring the match level. The fifth and final set saw Bertie move into a 7 - 2 lead and at that point the enormity of what he was about to achieve hit home and he saw this lead gradually slip away leaving the score all level at 9 all.

"I don't remember much of what happened next I just hit two forehand winners to win the match!"

After 70 years of playing Bertie Levinge made table tennis history in front of an appreciative and enthusiastic audience as Ireland's first mainstream World Champion. You would imagine that would be the end of the story but this time partnered by Les D'Arcy the two men cruised through the doubles competition only dropping one set to add the World doubles crown to make it a double Gold for Bertie, Cork and for Ireland. So if you see a distinguished gentleman dressed in a very smart Kimono sitting round the Harlequins club-house congratulate Ireland's first World table tennis Champion and the proof that table tennis can be enjoyed by everyone at any age. Even if maybe we can't all be as good as current World Champion Bertie Levinge.

Hasselt Open
Development Squad Selections for Belgium 28th May to 1st June 2004
Under-12 Girls Jenny O'Donnell, Susan Nealon, Claire Nelson, NPC Phyllis Kenny
Under-14 Girls Fiona Mernagh, Amy Tobin, Fiona Dennett, NPC Jing Yi
Under-12 Boys Paul McCreery, David Budden, Neal O'Flynn, Sam Hanley, NPC Marcus McDonnell
Under-14 Boys K. Knox, Gavin Maguire, Patrick Guy, NPC John O'Donoghue

Cork Table Tennis Association
The CTTA has been thrown into difficulty when they failed to elect a Chairperson at this years AGM. Last years popular Chairman Michael Healy stepped down from his role in order to to go forward as the new Director of Marketing for the ITTA. Michael who is father of top Munster junior Killian Healy will be sorely missed as he managed to keep the CTTA afloat, with his diplomatic skills and focused vision, he also encouraged an improved level of sponsorship and organisation in Cork. Before becoming CTTA Chairman Michael also worked as Munster Development Officer with the National Development Committee and qualified as a Level 1 ITTA Coach.

With the high demand on personnel from the new ITTA Development Strategy it is anticipated that table tennis on a local and even provincial level in the south will suffer especially in areas where there are a very few people with expertise and experience trying to sustain the sport. It is hoped that once the transition to the new strategy is completed that some of these and other issues will be addressed by the new committees being formed by the ITTA, until then? An EGM of the CTTA is expected to be announced once a candidate can be found. The Munster AGM will be held on Tuesday 25th May at the Country Club Hotel, Cork at 8pm.

Korea Open
Defending champion and top seed at the Volkswagen Open in Korea, MA Lin of China, lost in the second round of the Men’s Singles event to CHIANG Peng-Lung of Chinese Taipei in five games. Japan’s Ryusuke SAKAMOTO and Seiya KISHIKAWA beat the top seeds and the most successful pair in the world in the last eight months, MA Lin and CHEN Qi of China. For more info on the Korean Open check out the ITTF site at www.ittf.com

NCTC News
906 Coaches apply for Assimilation to NCDP: A total of 906 coaches from 39 sports have applied for assimilation into the National Coaching Development Programme (NCDP). The Assimilation Scheme provides experienced coaches with the opportunity to enter the NCDP on the basis of previous qualifications and experience. All coaches that have applied for assimilation are now in the process of being vetted by the NCTC Assimilation Board, which is responsible for overseeing standards across all the participating sports. The scheme has been described by the Assimilation Board Chairman, Lt. Col. Gerry Mullins as 'one of the most far-seeing coaching initiatives that I have come across anywhere in the world'. When assimilated, this group of coaches will become part of the 20,000 coaches certificated so far within the NCDP.

Boy crushed to death by table-tennis table
Kobe, , May. 15 (UPI) -- A 6-year-old boy died in Japan after his head was crushed by a folding table-tennis table, Mainichi Daily News reported Saturday.

Police said the boy, Mao Maetaki, was in the gymnasium of a Kobe school with his father Koichi. After they finished, Mao's father lifted the table up to clear it away but it fell on Mao, trapping him, police said.

Mao was taken to a hospital after the accident, but he died about two hours later from his injuries.

Gatien Retires
It's official, 1993 World Champion Jean-Philippe Gatien is retiring from international competition after defaulting out of the Final World Olympic Qualification tournament in Innsbruck, Austria. In the first stage of the tournament on Thursday he barely (-11,-6,8,-10,8,8,10) beat world #182 Gudmundur Stephensen of Iceland. On Friday #85 Massimiliano Mondello of Italy beat Gatien 4-1 in the round of 16 of the main draw, sending the Frenchman to the second chance bracket.

"Angby-Sweden" -Table Tennis Journeymen
The first team from outside Oceania to arrive at the ITTF Junior Circuit was the team from Sweden. The "Swedish" team is actually the famous Ängby club of Sweden competing as Sweden with the blessing of the Swedish Association. Charismatic team leader, Nils-Erik Sandberg draws on his trademark cigar as he describes the ITTF Junior Circuit as "absolutely marvelous".

Report taken from ETTA website http://www.englishtabletennis.org.uk/dyncat.cfm?catid=13195

SIX NATIONS INTERNATIONAL TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
ISLE OF MAN 30th APRIL to 2nd MAY 2004

England were limited in the selection of players for this event owing to a Clash with the Junior Masters.

Teams were entered in all 4 team Events but in the Singles Competition only the Cadet Boys and Cadet Girls competed

RESULTS
Junior Boys Team Winners Ireland
2nd England

Junior Girls Team Winners Scotland
2nd England

Cadet Boys Team Winners England
2nd Scotland

Cadet Girls Team Winners Wales
2nd England

Junior Boys Singles Winner Stephen Gertson WAL
R/u Peter Graham IRL

Junior Girls Singles Winner Elizabeth Dennett IRL
R/u Laura Rumgay SCO

Cadet Boys Singles Winner Gavin Evans ENG
R/u Bradley Evans ENG

Cadet Girls Singles Winner Lauren Springthorpe ENG
R/u Amy Tobin IRL

Junior/Cadet Six Nations, Isle of Man by Sue Hayes
Teams were:
Cadet Girls: Amy Tobin, Fiona Dennett
Cadet Boys: Keith Knox, Mark O’Flynn
Junior Girls: Elizabeth Dennett, Amanda Mogey
Junior Boys: John Murphy, Peter Graham, David Hayes

I only know the following results: Junior Boys Team - Gold Junior Boys Individual
Peter Graham – Runner-up
David Hayes – Losing semi-finalist (to Peter)
John Murphy – Losing quarter-finalist (to Peter)

Junior Girls Individual
– Elizabeth Dennett – Winner

Junior Interpros Results Results by Kenneth Strong

Under 12 Boys
Ulster beat Munster 9/0; Leinster beat Connaught9/0
Ulster beat Connaught 9/0;Leinster beat Munster8/1
Ulster beat Leinster8/1;Munster beat Connaught9/0
1.Ulster 2.Leinster3.Munster 4. Connaught

Under 12 Girls
Connaught beat Leinster9/0;Ulster beat Munster9/0
Connaught beat Ulster8/1;Leinster beat Munster9/0
Connaught beat Munster9/0;Ulster beat Leinster6/3
1.Connaught2.Ulster3.Leinster 4.Munster

Cadet Boys
Leinster beat Connaught9/0;Ulster beat Munster8/1
Leinster beat Munster9/0;Ulster beat Connaught9/0
Leinster beat Ulster6/3;Munster beat Connaught9/0
1.Leinster 2.Ulster3.Munster 4.Connaught

Cadet Girls
Leinster beatConnaught7/2;Ulster beat Munster9/0
Leinster beat Munster9/0;Ulster beat Connaught8/1
Leinster beat Ulster9/0;Munster beat Connaught7/2
1.Leinster2.Ulster3.Munster4.Connaught

Junior Boys
Ulster beatMunster8/1;Leinster beat Connaught9/0
Ulster beat Connaught8/1;Leinster beat Munster7/2
Ulster beat Leinster5/3;Munster beat Connaught7/2
1.Ulster2.Leinster3.Munster4.Connaught

Junior Girls
Ulster beat Munster5/4; Munster beat Leinster5/4;Ulster beat Leinster 5/3; no Connaught team.
1.Ulster 2.Munster 3. Leinster

Another TTIreland editorial, "Back to School."
One of the joys of running your own independent website is the opportunity you can occasionally use to ask some questions and try and clear out some of the dustier cupboards we have in our sport. I still struggle to find out what's going on and consequently it is difficult to raise the veil on some issues as it is hard to find anyone who will actually go "on the record" about any issue! Trying to establish fact over rumour is an on going problem when very few in official-dome is willing to put his or her opinions down on paper.

After reading a couple of reports on the All Ireland Schools (incidentally none were sent to TTIreland!), it would appear from its wording there have been a number of interested parties criticising the Irish Schools Association on its selection procedure for the ISF World Schools. TTIreland would be proud to be counted amongst those critics. At least a couple of reports allude to the fact that the critics have been "silenced" and in one particularly fervent passage "Tiernans slammed the door in the face of their critics."

Just in case this refers to the TTIreland article that appeared on the website earlier this year I would like to clarify a couple of points.

1. At no stage did TTIreland criticise St. Tiernans School. As far as I understand the school has shown tremendous commitment to table tennis over the years and has consistently performed at the All Ireland Schools.

2. If the article inferred any criticism, then it was directed solely towards the ISTTA and ITTA the bodies responsible for over seeing the organisation and setting the selection criteria and procedure. At this time TTIreland has not received any communication from any representative of the ISTTA and publicly continues to offer the ISTTA or the ITTA the opportunity to clarify its position over the matter.

As the original article states,
"Maybe all this could of possibly have been avoided as at present, as far as we can establish, the decisions being made by the ISTTA do not currently include provincial representatives from either Connacht or Munster."

TTIreland is not disputing whether St. Tiernan's who finished 3rd at the All Ireland Schools 2003 should have represented Ireland at the World Schools. What needs to be questioned is whether an individual who is both the ISTTA selector and coach for the school should be put into a situation where such a criticism could be made.

If a team who finishes first is unable to go (Why? Did the winning school receive enough support? Another question that needs to be urgently addressed), would it not make sense to offer the opportunity to the school who came second? A possibility that could have been considered would be sending the school who came second to play in the school competition and those who came third in the national event, providing everyone with a share in this unique opportunity. As it was why was neither a national boys or girls team was sent this time? I am sure there were a number of players who would have liked to have gone.

It is difficult to address the level of performance of the school teams who did represent Ireland without appearing to be hard or unfair but from what I read they didn't win a match. I presume the level was very high but we have been much more competitive in previous years, lets hope this is just a hitch and not representative in the falling off of standards.

As editor of the independent TTIreland website I would like to clarify that I have no personal involvement in any of the schools that could have or should have been selected and my interest is purely in the promotion of clear and fair structure and procedure for Irish Table Tennis.

Original TTIreland editorial on ISTTA matters

Bangor Open Fermanagh League website
Former European champion John Hilton claimed two titles at the Bangor Open championships on Saturday while Na Liu and Jing Yi Gao put one over on the men in the open doubles, Andrew Dennison rolled back the years with a vintage performance and Liu's much anticipated showdown with Marketa Myskova from Prague lived up to all expectations in the North Down spectacular where the table tennis was simply fabulous.

What a tournament it was for Greenisland's Andrew Dennison as he romped past current Irish international Conor Nolan from Dublin in the quarters before overcoming Clive Carthy in a tense semi, Carthy had put out No2 seed Abdul Wuroala from Nigeria in a controversial five setter to reach this stage. In the final 12 times Ulster champion Dennison had the backing of the partisan crowd but that was not enough as he too fell to the wizardry of Hilton although he did not give the former English international an easy passage at times.

The ladies singles final was definitely the match of the day as the nimble Marketa Myskova from the Czech Republic used all her defensive skills and swiftness of movement to try a quell the lightning fast attacks of the popular Na Liu from Belfasts Glenburn club in an exhibition of table tennis at its very best. The marvellous Liu had won the title for the past three years and simply refused to relinquish it as she sent relentless barrages of forehand smashes down both wings and in the end the brilliant defender Myskova could not keep the Chinese maestro at bay any longer and she took a deserved 3-1 victory to the delight of the large gallery who gave a standing ovation to both players as they left the arena.

The open doubles saw Liu and her mentor Jing Yi Gao cause a total sensation when they humbled a number of quality mens pairings to take an historic victory in this class including Carthy and Wuraola, Ning and John Murphy and then to cap it all they beat Hilton and Bowen in the final which ended the former Saarbrucken player's hopes of a treble. There were also Ulster winners in the class three and girls singles categories with Monaghan's Leroy Carlton and Amanda Mogey from Carnmoney scoring notable successes.

Irish Junior Top 12

	U17 Girls						U17 Boys
Rank	Players	Points	For	Against		Rank	Players	Points	For	Against
1	Emma Jane Helen	8	24	3		1	John Murphy	8	24	2
2	Katie McSweeney	7	22	6		2	David Hayes	7	21	5
3	Oonagh McCullagh	5	18	12		3	Ross Cullen	6	18	10
4	Claire O’Callaghan	5	15	12		4	Ed Wrynn	4	17	14
5	Rebecca McCarthy	4	15	14		5	Shane Dolan	4	16	16
6	Jo Flahive	3	16	15		6	Killian Healy	3	13	18
7	Sarah Dorney	3	11	17		7	David Buckley	3	10	15
8	Hazell Mullins	1	3	21		8	Mike Spitere	1	6	21
	U14 Girls						U14 Boys
Rank	Players	Points	For	Against		Rank	Players	Points	For	Against
1	Fiona Dennett	10	30	4		1	Mark O’ Flynn	11	33	9
2	Amy Tobin	10	30	7		2	Gavin Maguire	10	31	13
3	Ciara O’ Donnell	9	30	7		3	Conor Morgan	8	29	15
4	Fiona Mernagh	8	27	14		4	Niall Mc’ Donnell	8	26	13
5	Sarah Kenny	7	24	13		5	Shane Foster	7	26	19
6	Aileen O’Donnell	6	21	18		6	Andrew Holohan	6	24	19
7	Ciara Nolan	6	19	18		7	Ryan Flood	5	24	22
8	Fiona Downey	3	16	24		8	Ian Shellard	4	18	28
9	Evelyn Mullane	3	9	24		9	Daniel Jones	3	17	28
10	Emily D'Arcy	3	9	26		10	Ruairi Oliver	3	16	28
11	Sarah Galligan	1	3	30		11	Conan O'Hara	1	7	32
						12	John Costello	0	8	33
	U12 Girls						U12 Boys
Rank	Players	Points	For	Against		Rank	Players	Points	For	Against
1	Susan Nealon	11	33	4		1	Sam Hanley	11	33	1
2	Jenny O’Donnell	10	32	5		2	Neal O’Flynn	10	30	6
3	Chloe Nealon	8	28	12		3	Garbhan McCabe	9	28	11
4	Rebecca Kenny	8	24	12		4	Alan Jones	8	26	12
5	Clodagh McCullagh	7	21	18		5	Mark O'Dea	7	23	14
6	Robyn Brown	6	23	17		6	Sam Logue	5	18	20
7	Avril Healy	6	21	21		7	Gavin Reilly	5	18	20
8	Sarah Byrne	4	15	26		8	Adam Logue	5	17	19
9	Sara Dolan	3	16	25		9	Paul Smith	3	13	25
10	Claire Downey	2	9	29		10	Darren Reilly	2	8	28
11	Niamh McCabe	1	4	31		11	Damien Galligan	1	5	30
12	Catriona Nolan	0	7	33		12	Padraig McGahern	0	0	33

Senior Interpros, Killarney, Co. Kerry 2004
Ulster retained the Senior title and Leinster also retained the U21 and Veteran titles at the Killarney Ryan Hotel, Killarney. Connaught finished in the runner up position in the U21 and Veterans events, with Connaught beating Ulster Veterans at the Inter Pros.

Senior: Leinster 10 Munster 0
Ulster 10 Connaught 0
Ulster 8 Munster 2
Leinster 9 Connaught 1
Connaught 6 Munster 5
Ulster 6 Leinster 2

Winners: Ulster 2. Leinster 3. Connaught 4. Munster

U21: Ulster 6 Munster 5
Leinster 8 Connaught 2
Connaught 6 Munster 4
Leinster 7 Ulster 3
Connaught 6 Ulster 4
Leinster 6 Munster 4

Winners: Leinster 2. Connaught 3. Ulster 4. Munster

Veterans: Connaught 5 Ulster 4
Leinster 9 Munster 0
Ulster 9 Munster 0
Leinster 8 Connaught 1
Connaught 9 Munster 0
Leinster 5 Ulster 2

Winners: Leinster 2. Connaught 3. Ulster 4. Munster

Tara takes Triple Title
Tara Fusco has had one of her best seasons ever with a number of major wins this season including good performances in the British League and the recent World Team Championships.
Semi final - Tara Fusco bt Liz Dennett 3-1
Semi final - Michelle McGreevey bt Sabrina Conway 3-0
Final - Tara Fusco bt Michelle McGreevey 3-1
Ladies Doubles
Final - Tara Fusco & Rhonda Fox bt Theresa Devaney & Sabrina Conway

Mixed Doubles
Final - Tara Fusco & Andrew Dennison bt Marcus McDonnell & Jenny Harrison

Irish Primary School Team
Connaught /Mayo once again secured a paternership of susan and chloe nealon on the Irish Primary School Team like last year the team had Jenny and Susan and they are all members of the Ballina Pure Fresh Dairies team. The club are delighted with the selection of both girls especially for Chloe who has played her current Irish session 2004 at the tender age of 9 and in 4th class in Knockanillo N.S

Irish National Championships 28/02/04

Mens Singles
A Dennison bt P.Graham

Womens Singles
J Harrison bt E Dennett ,-6,-6,1,9,9

Mens Doubles
Dennison/Cherry bt Graham/Nabney 8,5,4

Womens Doubles
Devaney/Harrison bt Carpenter/Mogey 13,-9,4,11

Mixed Doubles
Dennison/Thompson bt Cherry/Harrison 9,9,6

Veterans
K Burke/ bt J Lappin 3,3,7
One of closest fought matches of the day was between J Lappin and J Robinson in the Semi Final of the Vets, Lappin finally reached the final taking the fifth set 11/9.(10,-13,-9,9,9)

U21s
D McNeill bt R Cullen 5,-8,3,-5,6

Class 2
D Hayes bt W Mahaffy 9,9,-6,8

Division 4 World Team Championships 01/03/04
Mens 4th Division
IRL Ireland: J.Sugrue, D.Lynch, C.Nolan, J.Murphy, Playing Captain: C.Slevin
SRI Sri Lanka
BAR Barbados
KEN Kenya
LBA Libya
Women 3rd Division
MDA Moldova
ENG England
POR Portugal
LUX Luxembourg
NOR Norway
IRL Ireland: J.Y.Gao, T. Fusco, M.McGreevy, NPC: A.Brett

Major web links for the World Team Championships
Official site of the Qatar TT Association: www.doha2004.org
ITTF site: World Championships
English/Czech site of www.pingpong.cz: www.pingpong.cz

Controversy over the All Ireland Schools
The decision to hold the All Ireland Schools Finals early has thrown at least two of the provinces into chaos as neither Munster nor Connacht were expecting the finals to be played so soon. Last year's All Ireland Finals were held at the end of March (29/03/04) with all previous years being held in April and with 2002 in May. It is rumoured that the ISTTA were aware of the proposed date as early as November 2003 but failed to share or pass on the information to the provincial schools officers until less than two weeks ago.

The matter is further complicated for Connacht and Munster who are expected to travel to Ulster on St. Patrick's Day, a Bank Holiday in the south, when none of the schools are open and teachers are taking a deserved break. Add to this the long journey back on Friday to Killarney Co. Kerry for the Senior Interpros and the objections from all the school coaches start to pile higher than the nearby Eagle's Nest.

TTIreland understands the decision whether any schools will represent these provinces will depend on which schools qualify and whether they can organise travel and accommodation over the Bank Holiday with a number of questions over insurance to be examined. We believe that the Munster Play-offs will be played on March 10th at the earliest due to the mock exams taking place all over the country, with Connacht Finals due to be played on the 12th. With this effecting all but one of the five current All Ireland Champions the event is in danger of causing a rift between all the provinces.

This will be a huge disappointment to both provinces who have seen a significant increase in schools participation, the Munster Schools Cup saw 55 teams and 18 schools take part earlier this year and the West Cork Schools also saw an increase with 11 National School teams participating. Munster will also see three schools challenging for All Ireland places in both U13 and U19 girls' competitions. We also believe that a number of new schools have been developed in Galway by its very active committee.

In other schools news it has also been confirmed that St Tiernans, Dublin who finished 3rd in last years All Ireland Schools Finals will be representing Ireland at this year's ISF World Schools Championships in Germany. ISTTA Chairman John O'Donoghue will be travelling out with his school for the prestigious competition being held between 27th of March and the 3rd April. Another clash looks on the cards, as The 3rd of April is also the STIGA Irish Junior Top 12 event being held in Cork.

With so many questions being asked and the implementation of the new ITTA Strategy it appears that the role and structure of the ISTTA will urgently need to be examined closely by all the provinces if there is to be a long-term future for the Irish Schools Table Tennis Assoc.

Maybe all this could of possibly have been avoided as at present, as far as we can establish, the decisions being made by the ISTTA do not currently include provincial representatives from either Connacht or Munster.

With the organisation of the primary schools (Guernsey) and Junior Schools International being held in Limerick planned for later this season this in our opinion could be just too much work for the currently very small ISTTA committee. Surely the ITTA will eventually have to assist the development of the schools as an important and integral part of the future development of the sport in Ireland?

Leinster Open Results 2004 I.W.A. 31/01/04 Thanks to John Bowe for the results, if anyone knows what happened in the ladies maybe they could let me know

Mens Singles
Semi- Na Ning Bt Peter Graham 3-0
Semi- Andrew Dennison Bt John Murphy 3-0
Final- Na Ning Bt Andrew Dennison 3-1

Mens Doubles
Semi- Daryll Strong & Gilles Duccorroy Bt Colin Byrne & David McNeill 3-2
Semi- Na Ning & John Bowe Bt Andrew Dennison & Willy Cherry 3-2
Final- Na Ning & John Bowe Bt Daryl Strong & Gilles Duccorroy 3-2

New Office for ITTA by Tony Martin ITTA Sec.
Just to inform you that the Association has moved office to the new SportHQ office block, which is leased by the Irish Sports Council. Facilities are excellent and anyone is welcome to visit the premises when in Dublin.

The address is: SportHQ, 13 Joyce Way, ParkWest, Dublin 12. Tel. 6251135 Fax. 6251136

Travelling Abroad
I wish to remind all Branches/Clubs/ Coaches/Players that when travelling abroad to events you must seek permission from the Association before you travel. The purpose for this is that the Association know where you are and that you are in good standing with the Association.

ITTA Selections 20/02/04
Newcastle Grand Prix - Newcastle 21st - 22nd February 2004
Players: Damien Lynch, Jason Sugrue, Conor Nolan, John Murphy, Jing Yi Gao, Tara Fusco, Michelle McGreevy

World Team Championships, Doha, Qatar 1st-7th March 2004,
Mens Team: Jason Sugrue, Damien Lynch, Conor Nolan, John Murphy, Playing Captain: Colum Slevin
Womens Team: Jing Yi Gao, Tara Fusco, Michelle McGreevy, NPC: Arthur Brett

Derby Junior 4 Star, Derby, 13th-14th March 2004
Girls: Claire Nelson, Susan Nealon, Jenny O'Donnell, Judith Atwell, Fiona Dennett, Ciara O'Donnell, Danielle Douglas,
Boys: Neal O' Flynn, David Budden, Marcus Maxwell, Paul McCreery, Patrick Guy, Mark O'Flynn, Daniel Keenan, NPC's: Jing Yi Gao, Na Liu, John O'Donoghue

Junior British League
Again having to trawl the ETTA site for information on Irish table tennis I discovered that the Irish Boys won the first division and David Hayes ended up with the best figures in the division played 20 won 19.

Club	P	W	D	L	G/F	G/A	S/F	S/A	Pts
Wirral Premier Girls	10	7	2	1	37	23	135	99	16
Draycott & Long Eaton "A	10	6	2	2	39	21	131	94	14
Team Peniel "B"	10	4	2	4	34	26	132	98	10
Irish Girls	10	2	4	4	29	31	113	115	8
De Vere N.E.T.T.S. Girls	10	1	4	5	22	38	97	130	6
Darlington Girls "A"	10	1	4	5	19	41	64	136	6

Club	P	W	D	L	G/F	G/A	S/F	S/A	Pts
Irish Boys	10	9	0	1	44	16	146	88	18
Southfields Elite	10	6	3	1	37	23	137	95	15
Grove Boys "B"	10	3	4	3	30	30	123	121	10
Cippenham "A"	10	2	3	5	29	31	121	120	7
Devon Aces	10	2	2	6	24	36	101	132	6
London Progress "B"	10	2	0	8	16	44	82	154	4

Individual Stats:
Player Club Played Won Points
Amanda MOGEY Irish Girls 15 11 73.33
Amy TOBIN Irish Girls 17 9 52.94
Emma Jane HELEN Irish Girls 6 1 16.66
Fiona MERNAGH Irish Girls 15 1 6.66
Boys
David HAYES Irish Boys 20 19 95.00
Peter GRAHAM Irish Boys 10 8 80.00
John MURPHY Irish Boys 20 14 70.00
Keith KNOX Irish Boys 10 3 30.00

Irish Ladies beaten into second place
Grove with a team of Wang Yanan, Zhao Shuang and with Georgina Walker and Kelly Sibley, themselves just back from training camp in China, sharing third position retained the Women's British League premier division title at Cheltenham Recreation Centre over the week end 24/25th. January.

Grove dropped but 2 of 30 sets played throughout their five matches, both by Zhao Shuang, one to Liu Na (Irish ladies) and the other to Naomi Owen (Grove 2). The final match Grove versus Irish ladies produced some outstanding Table Tennis, the two most closely contested sets being that in which Liu Na defeated Zhao Shuang 19-17; 11-7; 5-11; 9-11; 11-7. and that in which Kelly Sibley defeated Michelle McGreevy 14-12; 12-10; 8-11; 9-11; 11-9.

Senior's at the Munster Open
Gurranabraher Parochial Hall in Cork was the venue for one of the biggest events on the Irish Table Tennis calendar. With the Muster Schools Cup preceding the opening rounds of the Munster Open Senior singles on Friday 16th. Nearly 500 competitors took part in 27 different events over the three days of competition finishing late on Sunday evening.

With the numbers increasing the competition attracts entries from all over Ireland and a number of Irish internationals returned from abroad to play including Jason Sugrue. Sugrue has been unbeaten in Ireland this season and plays for leading English club London Progress. He made his first appearance ever at this year's Munster Open reaching the final comfortably. Sugrue was joined in the final by Dublin based Chinese player Na Ning. Na Ning impressed everyone at last years event winning an impressive trio of titles with the Senior Mens, U21 and Junior events.

The finals were played out in front of a good crowd, with invited guests including the Lord Mayor of Cork and the Munster members of Team Ireland Special Olympic Table Tennis Team and Team Ireland Head Coach Arthur Brett.

The match swung both ways as Sugrue attacked pushing Ning further away from the table while Ning countered with his fast pen-hold loops. Ning took Sugrue into the fifth set and as the tension built the spectators were set up with an excellent display of fast tactical table tennis. Sugrue brought the proceedings to a close with the final point and his first ever Munster title, even sweeter as his family roots are in Co. Kerry.

The ladies final saw Michelle McGreevy (Ulster) at the Munster Open for the first time take out Irish No.1 Tara Fusco (Leinster) in a battle of a semi final. Elizabeth Dennet (Eng) one of Ireland's top juniors reached the ladies final for the second time in a row by beating Tara's sister Rhonda Fox in the other semi final. However Elizabeth wasn't able to topple Michelle and the ladies title took the long trip up to Belfast.



Junior Boys
There are so many matches going on its difficult to follow everything, I saw a great final between Johnny Murphy and Peter Graham. John did well to revenge his defeat in the senior men's and at the Leinster Junior open by beating David Hayes in the semi final. He finished the day by beating Peter in closely contested final. Maybe Johnny's not a morning person?

If you would like to submit an article to the website just email me at owen@ttireland.com

Webmaster Comment: I can't help but add that I caused a bit of an upset in the mens event by beating Marcus McDonnell in the first round in the fifth set. A shock because Marcus is in the top 10 in Ireland and I am most decidedly not! Thanks Marcus a big moment in my table tennis career.

Article publish on the Eastpoint Website by John O'Donoghue
It was a triple whammy for Eastpoint in the Munster Open Cadet tournament with three players in the Semi Finals. Unfortunately Keith Knox stole in to exact revenge for the Leinster Open and take the title.

It was an exciting event and since Shane Foster and Conor Morgan were in the Last 16 play Off final (won 3-1 by Conor) we had 5 in the top 10. There were upsets however and Andy Holohan went out 3-0 to Paul McCreery in the Last 16.

In the quarters Gavin Maguire fought out a good win Against number 4 seed Daniel Keenan to book his semi final place. Naill mcDonnell won 3-1 against number 2 seed Patrick Guy to line up against Gavin in the semi. Mark O'Flynn had to play out a repeat of his Leinster Open final in his semi and Keith Knox was really fired up and did not give Mark much chance.

Niall won a tight semi 3-1 against Gavin and took one end in the final against Keith but could not shut Keith out in the other sets and went down 3-1

This Munster Open was a very good tournament for us. Na Ning from our Premier division team was in the final of the mens where he lost 3-2 to Jason Sugrue in a superb game. John Bowe and Na Ning then claimed the Mens Doubles title.

John Murphy was the Junior Boys winner with a superb performance which saw him negotiate the most difficult draw possible to win the quarters against Ross Cullen, the semi against David Hayes and the final against Peter Graham and thereby claim the Munster Open title.

U12s An O'Flynn Win
Early on it looked as if Neal would be lucky to get through the first round. He had a massive fight on his hands in the group stages with a match that went to 5 sets and when he ran out an 11-3 winner. That in a sense spurred him on and he won his semi final against Garban McCabe with ease.

The final with Paul McCreery started badly for Neal and at 2-nil down he looked beaten but he played more consistently in the third set and once he had taken an end he looked more dangerous and gradually got better and better. He won a close fourth set after Paul had taken a commanding lead but found himself reeled in by Neal.

In the fifth he played superbly matching Paul point for point before winning a quick succession of points at 5-5 to win the Under 12 Boys Munster Open title. It was an excellent match and both players deserve praise for their determined attitude and exciting play.

Munster Open 2004

U12 Boys	1. N. O’Flynn	2. Paul McCreery	3. Sam Hanley
U12 Girls	1. J. O’Donnell	2. C. Nealon	3. R. Kenny
U14 Boys	1. K. Knox	2. N. McDonnell	3. M. O’Flynn
U14 Girls	1. F. Mernagh	2. A. Tobin	3. F. Dennett
U17 Boys	1. J. Murphy	2. P. Graham	3. D. Hayes
U17 Girls	1. E. Dennett	2. A. Mogey	3. A. Tobin
U21 Men	1. C. Fahy	2. D. Keegan	3. B. Farrell
U21 Ladies	1. S. Conway	2. L. O’Sullivan	3. R. O’Connor
Senior Men	1. J. Sugrue	2. N. Ning	3. D. Lynch & P. Graham
Senior Ladies	1. M. McGreevy	2. E. Dennett	3. T. Fusco / R. Fox
Class 2	1. F. Abidun	2. C. Byrne	3. P. Green / R.Gavin
Veteran Mens	1. T. Caffrey	2. P. McCabe
Veteran Ladies	1. P. Kenny	2. V. Ridgeway
Mixed Doubles	1. C. Nolan / T. Devaney	2. N. Ning / E. Dennett	3. J. Murphy / S. Conway
Mens Doubles	1. J.Bowe / N.Ning	2. C.Nolan / J. Murphy
Ladies Doubles	1. R. O’Connor / E. Dennett	2. S. Conway / T. Devaney	3. L. Long / L. O’Sullivan

Stiga Leinster Junior Open Competition
03/01/04-04/01/04
COMPETITION	WINNER	RUNNER UP	THIRD PLACE
BOYS UNDER 12	Paul Mc Creery (Ulster)	Marcus Maxwell (Ulster)	Neal O'Flynn (Leinster)
BOYS UNDER 12 PLATE	Jonny McKee (Ulster)	Keith Mc Loughrey (Ulster)
GIRLS UNDER 12	Jenny O'Donnell (Connaught)	Susan Nealon (Connaught)	Judith Atwell (Ulster)
GIRLS UNDER 12 PLATE	Isobel Farrelly (Ulster)	Claire Downey (Leinster)
BOYS UNDER 14	Mark O'Flynn (Leinster)	Keith Knox (Ulster)	Andrew Holohan (Leinster)
BOYS UNDER 14 PLATE	Robert Jones (Leinster)	Paul Quealy (Ulster)
GIRLS UNDER 14	Fiona Dennett (England)	Ciara O'Donnell (Connaught)	Fiona Mernagh (Leinster)
GIRLS UNDER 14 PLATE	Denise Watson (Leinster)	Claire Downey (Leinster)
BOYS UNDER 17	David Hayes (England)	John Murphy (Leinster)	Peter Graham (Leinster)
BOYS UNDER 17 PLATE	Niall Mc Donnell (Leinster)	Donal Vaughan (Leinster)
GIRLS UNDER 17	Elizabeth Dennett (England)	Amanda Mogey (Ulster)	Amy Tobin (Leinster)
GIRLS UNDER 17 PLATE	Kelby Duggan (Munster)	Sarah Kenny (Leinster)
UNDER 19	David Hayes (England)	Conor Fahy (Leinster)	Anthony Mc Cann (Leinster)
UNDER 19 PLATE.	Orla Fahy (Leinster)	Hayley Collins (Munster)

Top 12 on the 30th November 2003 IWA Clontarf Reporter John Bowe

1.J.Sugrue
2.D.lynch
3.J.Murphy
4.C.Nolan
5.J.Bowe
6.D.Strong
7.T.Caffrey
8.M.McDonnell
9.T.Dolan
10.P.Wallace
11.A.Redmond
12.C.Burke

Olympic Singles Qualifying Tournament 28/11/03 from the live results site.
Results of GAO Jing Yi IRE

FAZEKAS Maria HUN (11/3, 11/6, 11/0, 12/10)
GOROWSKA Magdalena POL (11/6, 10/12, 11/4, 11/9, 11/7, 11/7, 11/3)
LOGATSKAYA Tatyana BLR (13/11, 11/7, 13/11, 11/5)

GRUJIC Slobodan SCG beats PERSSON Jorgen SWE in 5th set to qualify for Athens. Grujic joins Blasczcyk and Korbel.

ROSSKOPF calls a time out at 7-5 down and 3 sets to 1 in the 4th set to remain in the match, winning the set 13-11 and the 6th 11-8. However KARAKASEVIC Alexandar SCG comes out on top 11-5 in the 7th and final set. Karakasevic joins team mate Grujic in Athens.

STIGA Ulster Junior Open

	U17 Girls (31)		U14 Girls (37)		U12 Girls (20)
1st	Amanda Mogey	1st	Fiona Mernagh	1st	Jenny O'Donnell
2nd	Elizabeth Dennett	2nd	Ciara O'Donnell	2nd	Susan Nealon
3rd	Fiona Mernagh	3rd	Fiona Dennett	3rd	Judith Atwell
4th	Fiona Dennett	4th	Amy Tobin	4th	Robyn Browne
5th	Emma Jane Helen	5th	Susan Nealon	5th	Rebecca Kenny
6th	Amy Tobin	5th	Fiona Downey	6th	Clodagh McCullagh
7th	Orla Fahy	5th	Aileen O'Donnell	7th	Rebecca Kenny
8th	Abigail Mogey	5th	Julie-Anne Forbes	8th	Clodagh McCullagh
	U17 Boys (52)		U14 Boys (45)		U12 Boys (26)
1st	David Hayes	1st	Keith Knox	1st	Paul McCreery
2nd	Peter Graham	2nd	Patrick Guy	2nd	David Budden
3rd	John Murphy	3rd	Daniel Keenan	3rd	Marcus Maxwell
4th	Keith Knox	4th	Marcus Maxwell	4th	Matthew Lappin
5th	Wayne Crawford	5th	Gavin Maguire	5th	Sam Hanley
6th	Ross Cullen	6th	Conor Morgan	6th	Simon McIntyre
7th	Josh Boyd	7th	Andrew Holohan	7th	Adam Williamson
8th	Killian Healy	8th	Daniel Jones	8th	Paul Robinson

HP Connacht Table Tennis Open
The HP Connacht Table Tennis Open was held in the Commercial Boat Club, Galway last Friday and Saturday. Thanks to all the players who travelled from Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht. Special thanks to our sponsor Hewlett Packard Company. Thanks to the Commercial Boat Club, Galway for the hospitality and to the Connacht Committee for ensuring the tournament's success. There was excitement on Friday night when Galway's newest League players Alex Vaniouchine from Russia and Felix Adiobun from Nigeria brought top Irish players Conor Nolan and John Murphy from Dublin to a fifth set in the Mens Doubles event which they narrowly lost 12/10. Full Results

SENIOR TEAM IN FOURTH PLACE IN ESTONIA Kenneth Strong

Irish Team: Jason Sugrue, Damien Lynch, Brian Fitzgerald, NPC Ken Strong

The Irish Team competed in the 1st stage tournament of the European Championships Qualification 2003-2005 Challenge Division in Tallinn, Estonia on 1th and 2nd November. Other teams competing in the group were: Albania, Norway, Slovenia, Turkey and Estonia.

Ireland's opening match against Turkey who finished in 2nd place was hard fought. Jason beat their No.2,Jiang before losing in 5 close sets to the No.1, Irfan Tavukcuoglu.

The second match versus Estonia saw Ireland in fine form and keen to beat this team which had defeated the Irish Team in last season's European Championships. Jason defeated the Estonian Nos.1 and 2 easily, players he had lost to at the European Championships. Brian, playing at No.2 lost a close match against the No.1 before Damien lost at No.3. With the match at 2/2 Brian defeated the Estonian No.2, Alek Smirnov 11/5 in the 5th set. This left Ireland winners 3/2 and revenge was achieved.

Our third match was against Albania. The team, in confident mood after the Estonian match, recorded a 3/0 whitewash of the Albanians. All 3 players showed good form against these difficult and somewhat unorthodox players.

We then took the table against the strong Slovenian Team with their World ranked No. 59, Bojan Tokic playing at No.1. Damien began the match with a strong performance against Tokic before losing in 3 sets. Jason then defeated the No. 2, Reposa in 4 sets before Brian lost closely to the No.3, Ignjatovic. At 2/1 down Jason played Tokic to keep the match live. Despite a fine performance he lost in 3 close sets. Final result: Ireland 1 Slovenia 3.

The team's fifth match was against Norway, the eventual winners of this 1st stage competition, who played their best team against us. Brian played first against the highly ranked Raymond Gonzales and played at the peak of his form before losing in 4 closely contested sets. Jason then played World ranked No.102, Geir Erlandsen. This match was again closely contested before Jason lost in 3 sets with the third being 17/15. Damien had the dubious honour of playing World ranked No.71, Wang, at No.3. Despite Wang's superior skills Damien got stuck in before losing in 3 sets. Ireland 0 Norway 3 but a good team performance.

Final Results: 1.Norway. 2. Turkey. 3. Slovenia. 4. Ireland. 5. Estonia. 6. Albania

The Irish players can take much satisfaction from their performances in this event. In all matches the players were competing strongly and in contention against players of much higher World ranking status.

Cadet Boys revenge Viking raid NPC John O'Donoghue
Irish No. 1 cadet Keith Knox completed his own Viking smash and grab when he won the Norges Cup Under 14 Boys title in Kongsvinger over the weekend. It was sweet revenge for the Irish after the Norwegians had come to Dublin last February and walked away with a good few titles at the Leinster Junior Open.Keith's win and Daniel Keenan's quarter finals was complimented by Mark O'Flynn's semi final in the under 13 boys

Keith was superb in the under 14s winning many hard matches and nearly going out in the first round! He was also given a scare in the Quarter finals by Ahmed Chaer.Keith was 2 sets to one down before winning 6 and 4 in the final two sets to clinch a place in the semi. The semi final win against Espen Ronneberg Norwegian Number one was one of Keith's best. This was a thrilling 5 set encounter with Keith winning 8 in the fifth.In the final he played his aggressive attacking game to win 3-1 against Aziz Chaer. Daniel lost 3-0 in his Quarter final against Kristoffer Hellerud

Mark O'Flynn had a good run in the Under 13 boys especially after he lost one in his group and had to be content with qualifying second. he beat a Norwegian comfortably in the last 32 before surviving closer examination against a Swedish player in the last 16. In the Quarter final he played superbly against Eric Lindmae from Estonia to win 7 3 and 9 frustrating the Estonian with his vicious forehand topspin.In the semi final he lost an exciting and competitive match 3-1 to Kristian Kvaale the Norwegian number 3 under 13.

But the tournament belonged to Keith who played superbly to win 21 out of 26 singles and in addition to being the first Irish Cadet to win an international tournament(?) was quarter finalist in the under 15 boys. it was a quality tournament with 300 entries and squads from Sweden, Estonia, Finland and Ireland as well as all the best Norwegians. It was therefore a magnificent achievement to win in such company. It was a fitting repost to the norwegians who had grabbed so many titles at the Leinster Open.

Results Under 14 Boys
Quarter Final:
Keith Knox Ireland beat Ahmed Chaer BMK BTK 10 -10 -8 2 4
Espen Ronneberg Kobra BTK beat Dennis Karlsson Sweden -5 -9 5 9 7
Aziz Chaer BMK BTK beat Hallvard Fjell Stord BTK 10, 4, 10
Kristoffer Hellerud Kobra BTK beat Daniel Keenan Ireland 4,4,6

Semi Final : Keith beat Espen Ronneberg -6 8 -9 4 8
Final Keith beat Aziz Chaer 7 10 -6 9

Under 13 Boys
Quarters;John Nguyen Sweden - Andreas Lusth Sweden 8,7,8
Quarters;Kristian Kvaale Randesund IL - Otto Tennilä Finland 9, 9, 7
Quarters;Kristoffer Hellerud Kobra BTK- Ahmed Chaer BMK BTK 5, -8, 7, 8
Quarters;Mark O'Flynn Ireland - Erik Lindmae Estonia 7, 3, 9

Semi;John Nguyen - Kristoffer Hellerud -6, -9, 9, 7, 8
Semi;Kristian Kvaale - Mark O'Flynn; 2, 7, -11, 8

Final;John Nguyen - Kristian Kvaale;11-7, 11-4, 11-9

Norge Cup, Norway.(28th Oct - 3rd Nov)
Mark O'Flynn, Daniel Keenan, Keith Knox, Patrick Guy, NPC: John O'Donoghue

Roskilde, Denmark (30th Oct - 3rd Nov)
Amy Tobin, Fiona Mernagh, Claire Nelson, John Murphy, Peter Graham, David Hayes, NPC's: Andrew Dennison and Phyllis Kenny

European Mens Championships Qualification, Tallinn, Estonia (31st Oct - 3rd Nov)
Jason Sugrue, Damien Lynch, Brian Fitzgerald NPC: Ken Strong

European Womens Championships Qualification, Luxembourg (31st Oct - 2nd Nov)
Jing Yi Gao, Tara Fusco, Michelle McGreevy NPC: Arthur Brett

Junior British Leagues
Ireland had a successful weekend at the Junior British Leagues with the Irish Boys remaining undefeated and currently topping the 1st Division. David Hayes finished with a 100% record with 10 wins from 10. Peter Graham finsihed with 8 from 10 and John Murphy with 6 from 10. John Murphy had a good win against Darius Knight in their 5-1 win against Sothfield's Elite. The Girls Team also in the 1st Division had mixed success finishing third in the group, with 2 wins , 2 loses and 1 draw. Amanda Mogey won 4 out of 5 with Amy Tobin having a good series of results to finish with 6 from 8 wins. Emma Jane Helen & Fiona Mernagh also contributed to the overall team performance.

Division 1
Club	P	W	D	L	G/F	G/A	S/F	S/A	Pts
Irish Boys	5	5	0	0	24	6	78	38	10
Southfields Elite	5	2	2	1	15	15	63	57	6
Grove Boys "B"	5	1	3	1	15	15	62	63	5
London Progress "B"	5	2	0	3	11	19	48	72	4
Devon Aces	5	1	1	3	13	17	53	65	3
Cippenham "A"	5	0	2	3	12	18	56	65	2
Division 1
Club	P	W	D	L	G/F	G/A	S/F	S/A	Pts
Wirral Premier Girls	5	4	1	0	19	11	69	46	9
Draycott & Long Eaton "A	5	4	0	1	22	8	72	41	8
Irish Girls	5	2	1	2	16	14	60	55	5
De Vere N.E.T.T.S. Girls	5	1	3	1	15	15	58	55	5
Team Peniel "B"	5	1	1	3	15	15	63	54	3
Darlington Girls "A"	5	0	0	5	3	27	12	83	0

STIGA Ulster Open
Mens Doubles Dennison/Cherry
Ladies Doubles M McGreevy/Na Liu
Mixed Doubles A Dennison/T Fusco
Mens Singles J Sugrue bt C Nolan
Ladies Singles Na Liu bt A Glover
Mens Vets W Cherry w/o T Caffrey
U21 Na Ning bt C.Nolan
Class 2 J Lappin bt W Mahaffy
Download Full Results

Irish Junior Ranking, IWA, Dublin. 4th October U17 Boys Thanks to Michael Healy
U-17 Boys
1. Peter Graham
2. John Murphy
3. David Hayes
4. Keith Knox
5. Josh Boyd
6. Killian Healy
7. Ed Wynn
8. Shane Dolan
9. Gervais Knox
9. Wayne Crawford
11.David Buckley & Mike Spitere

Download Results Here

Bronze Medal For Irish Team RESULTS from the 30TH SIX NATIONS INTERNATIONAL TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS 19TH TO 21ST SEPTEMBER 2003
Download Full Results

	MATCHES		GAMES
Country	For	Against	For	Against	Points	Position
Wales	5	0	44	6	10	1
England	4	1	34	16	9	2
Ireland	3	2	32	18	8	3
Scotland	2	3	26	24	7	4
Guernsey	1	4	10	40	6	5
I o Man	0	5	4	46	5	6

Individual Women
Jing Yi Gao (IRE) reached semi-finals beaten by Georgina Walker (ENG)
Tara Fusco (IRE) reached quarter-finals beaten by Georgina Walker (ENG)
Elizabeth Dennet (IRE) reached quarter-finals beaten by individual champion Helen Lower (ENG)

Individual Men
Jason Sugrue (IRE) reached semi-finals, beaten by Ryan Jenkins (WAL)
John Bowe (IRE) reached 1st Round of main competition, beaten by Owen Griffiths (WAL)
Damien Lynch (IRE) wins plate competition beating Lewis Wilson (SCO) in the final.
Individual Men's Champion was Adam Robertson (WAL).

Ballina Girls the best
Jenny O'Donnell won the Kweilin Open title at the Meadow Mill Sports Centre, Tranent in Scotland over the weekend when she beat fellow club mate Susan Nealon in the Minor Final. Ballina Coach Eamon Nealon was delighted with the performance of all his players.

The Ballina Club were able to make contact with the tournament organisers with the help of TTIreland and the tournament organisers were delighted to add an international flavour to the event. If any clubs are interested in attending tournaments abroad or foreign clubs would like to visit Ireland please contact TTIreland at clubs@ttireland.com and we'll try to help you organise your trip.

TTIreland have already helped clubs send squads to: Sweden, Belgium, France, England, Scotland, Germany, Denmark. And clubs from Sweden, France and England to Ireland.

Ronan & Rena in USA
Ronan Rooney and Rena McCarron, Commercial Boat Club, Galway arrived home to Ireland this week after a very hectic time at the US Table Tennis Open 2003 which was held in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately there were no medals for any of the Irish players. It was one of the best tournaments which they have attended and was very competitive. Ronan Rooney had a tough draw and played some good matches but overall was not happy with his results. He lost in deuce in 5th to Silver medallist, Frances' Stephane Mollines. Rena McCarron also had a very tough draw. In her group she had the gold and silver medal winners. She lost in the 5th set also to the Singles gold medallist Netherlands' Truss Laemars. However the highlight for her was in the team event where Rena defeated the No 3 in the world Satoko Fujiwara from Japan who won Gold in Open, Silver in Team and Bronze in Singles. Overall Rena was very happy with her form. She was really close to a medal position. Rena Mc Carron and Ronan Rooney are off in a month to the French Open and Connacht wish them the best of luck.

Six Nations Veteran Table Tenis Championships
The seventh Six Nations Table Tenis Championships took place at The National Sports Centre Douglas Isle of Man from Friday 12th September to Sunday 14th September inclusive. Teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Guernsey and Ireland took part.

The Irish Veteran's Society was represented in all three age categories. Results obtained were in keeping with expectations. In the 40+ age category the Irish team of Tommy Caffrey, Dave Pemberton, Kieran Burke, Karim Sabir, Carmel Lokko, Teresa Devaney and Jenny Harrison performed magnificently to take the silver medal to a very strong English team. On Friday night all the Irish teams were in action against their Welsh counterparts. The Irish 40+ team had to call on every ounce of effort to draw the match 4-4 with Tommy Caffrey / Teresa Devaney winning 3-0 in the final mixed doubles. On Saturday morning the team beat Guernsey 7-1 and Isle of Man 7-1 setting up the silver medal game with Scotland which Ireland won 5-3. The Enlgish match resulted in a 6-2 defeat.

In the 50+ category the Irish team of Norman Nabney, Oliver Adamson, Jeremy Lappin, Marjorie McNeill not wanting to be outdone by by their junior colleagues also took the silver medal but not without great difficulty. In the opening match the Irish team beat Wales 5-2 then on saturday morning lost 1-6 to Enlgand, Norman Nabney being the only Irish winner. Victories then against Guernsey 7-0 and Isle of Man 7-0 set up the silver medal match with Scotland. When the Irish team went into a 3-0 lead everything seemed rosy, but the Scots fought back to level 3-3. In the final men's doubles the Irish duo of Oliver Adamson and Jeremy Lappin lost the first set 11-1 but recovered to win the next three sets 12-10, 13-11, 11-9 to clinch the silver medal.

In the 60+ category Roy Copes, Ted Mahaffy, Ussher Watson and Evyln Kelly making her debut progressed in much the same way as the 40+ and 50+ teams. A 6-1 win on the Friday night against Wales in which Evyln won her debut match set up the weekend. Saturday morning saw the Irish team lose 6-1 to England, beat Guernsey 5-2, Isle of Man 7-0 and again set up a silver medal match with Scotland. Alas it was not to be and after a very hard fought contest with the score at 3-3 Roy Copes fought tooth and nail before going down 11-8 in the fifth set. Overall a very pleasing performance by the Irish teams.

The individual championship took place on the Sunday. In every year we have taken part, somebody has come home with an individuals / doubles gold. This year was no exception. Tommy Caffrey playing in his first 60+ competition "Battled" his way to victory. In the semi-finals he beat the English number one in four grueling, stamina sapping sets. In the other semi final team mate Roy Copes was also making his mark beating the English number two to set up an all Irish final. Roy began in fine style taking a two set lead and led 8-5 in the third set. Caffrey, using all his experience fought back to level at two sets each. Caffrey got away to an early lead in the final set and eventually took the gold 11-8 in the fifth.

In the other categories Irish contestants performed well to get to semi-finals in both Men's and Ladies singles and doubles. However, in the Consolation Singles for players who did not get out of their groups. Carmel Lokko won the Ladies 40+ and Marjorie McNeill won the 50+ category.

Next year the Championships move to England(Widnes) and the following year, 2005, its back to Ireland.

6 Nations Championships, Largs, Scotland (19th-21st September 2003)
Mens Team: Jason Sugrue, Damien Lynch, John Bowe, NPC: Colum Slevin

Ladies Team: Jing Yi Gao, Michelle McGreevy, Tara Fusco, NPC: Arthur Brett

Junior British League, Felton Manor (17th-19th October 2003)
Boys Team: John Murphy, Peter Graham, David Hayes, Ross Cullen

Girls Team: Amanda Mogey, Emma-Jane Helen, Fiona Mernagh, Amy Tobin

Senior Classification Tournament, IWA
Brian Fitzgerald heralded his return to good form when he took the Senior Classification Top spot in the mens' event. The Cork man didn't have it all his own way as he was defeated 3-2 by Na Ning in the group stages. Fitzgerald qualified through to the next round over Dave Pemberton and Conor Nolan. In the other group Damien Lynch came out in first only losing one match while John Bowe took the second spot after a close count-back between himself, Andrew Dennison and Marcus McDonnell all loosing two. Na Ning beat John Bowe 3-0 in the first of the semi finals while Fitzgerald managed to beat Damien Lynch in the fifth. This set up Ning and Fitzgerald for a rematch and this time it was Fitzgerald who came out victorious 3-0 with each of the sets going to deuce before Fitzgerald took the first title of the new season.

Final Qualifying Groups (Saturday);
Group A
1.David Hayes Q
2.Ross Cullen Q
3.Craig Dye
4.Kevin Devaney
5.Conor Fahy
6.Edward Wrynn

Group B
1.Terry Dolan Q
2.Philip Wallace Q
3.Dave Pemberton
4.Gervis Knox
5.Keith Knox
6.Tom Donnelly

Round Robin (Sunday);
Men;
1.Brian Fitzgerald
2.Na Ning
3.John Bowe
4.Damien Lynch
5.Andrew Dennison
6.Conor Nolan
7.Marcus McDonnell
8.Dave Pemberton
9.John Murphy
10.Willie Cherry
11.David Hayes
12.Peter Graham
13.Ross Cullen
14.Philip Wallace
15=Tommy Caffrey
15=Terry Dolan

Ladies;
1.Na Liu
2.Michelle McGreevy
3.Tara Fusco
4.Rhonda Fox
5.Elizabeth Dennett
6.Sabrina Conway
7.Louise Long
8.Amy Tobin

Irish in Liverpool
A number of players are heading across to the first ETTA Grand Prix of the season being held in Liverpool. Juniors Ross Cullen, Elizabeth Dennett and John Murphy will be travelling with Irish seniors John Bowe, Tarra Fusco & Marcus McDonnell with Conor Nolan and Sabrina Conway taking there places as seniors for the first time this season. Good luck to everyone!

Applications for ITTA National Captains
The ITTA Management Committee in conjunction with Colum Slevin, our National Coach are seeking applications for ITTA - NPC's / National Coaches jobs for the coming season 2003/04.
The criteria for the positions are as follows:

Involvement in Coach Education Programmes with NCTC, Limerick.

The closing date for applications is the 1st September 2003.

All applications to be sent to the ITTA Secretary, 46 Lorcan Villas, Santry, Dublin 9.

European Youth Olympic Festival- 26th July- 1st August By John O'Donoghue
Some results: Keith lost 4-0 to Baltrushka of Belarus. Amy lost 4-0 to Solichero of Spain, Shane lost 4-2 to Silva of Portugal, Fiona lost 4-0 to Neves of Portugal. Shane and Amy played well, others had seeded players, they are all in groups so still chances."
Boys: Shane Dolan, Keith Knox
Girls: Amy Tobin, Fiona Mernagh
NPC: John O'Donoghue

Ballincollig to represent Munster at Community Games
Although the Ballincollig club is on a summer break some of the club members have been battling their way through the county and provincial rounds of the Community Games Competition. The lads will now be representing the town at the National finals in Mosney in August. Ballincollig have an exceptional record at this competition with a couple of wins under their belts in the last two years. This season sees a brand new team of players with the original group now over age for the competition. The team of Ruairi Oliver, Daniel O'Mahony, Aaron Kelleher, Stephen Buckley and Colin Shields put in an excellent performance at the Munster Finals at Limerick University on July 12th where they defeated a strong Tipperary team 6-1, with only Munster No1 Cadet Denis Mullane from Tipperary taking a victory. The Ballincollig lads went on to beat both Clare and Limerick without dropping a match. Ballincollig will hope to emulate their previous achievement at the National Community Games finals later this month.

Obituary: Langan took table tennis to new heights
By Sammy Hamill

JIMMY Langan, the man who raised Irish table tennis to unprecedented heights during the late 1960s and '70s, was buried in Dublin yesterday.

The brilliant, flamboyant Langan was just 54 when he died after suffering a heart attack on Thursday.

He was the outstanding Irish player of all time, a colourful, charismatic, eccentric character a player who could lift his chosen sport way beyond the conventional boundaries.

Like George Best, his footballing hero, he was a maverick who could play at the highest level, challenging the world masters from China and Japan as well as the leading Europeans. More than that, he could pack halls all over Ireland just to see him play. Good looks, charm and amazing natural ability, he also had a magnetism that no player before or since has ever possessed.

His great friend and doubles partner Tommy Caffrey was the original 'boy wonder' but then along came Langan to emulate and then surpass him.

While Caffrey was the classical stylist, Langan was left-handed, unorthodox and devastatingly effective.

He burst on the Irish scene as a 13-year-old, became Irish No.1 at 15 and stayed in that position for a decade during which only Caffrey could begin to challenge him. Indeed, during much of that period he never lost to any other Irish player - except for one extraordinary blip when he was beaten by Ulsterman Wallace Forde in the quarter-finals of a tournament in Portadown.

That was one night he lost the numerous bets he would take from spectators around the edge of the playing arena on how many points his opponents would get.

He recorded wins over every UK international player, including the equally colourful Chester Barnes, and took great pride in playing alongside his brothers Brian (deceased) and Tony on Irish teams.

His finest moments were in the European League where he won more matches than he lost and he and Caffrey were unbeaten in doubles for nearly three years.

But it was in Munich in the 1969 World championships that he so nearly scaled completely new heights. Playing World No.2 Kono of Japan for a place in the quarter-finals he led 10-4 in the final set and as play stopped on other tables around him and the TV cameras closed in he let it slip from his grasp 23-25. "I saw money," he sighed afterwards.

But he made money anyway, 'recycling' his player's pass for the final, which featured German hero Ebe Scholar, dozens of times from a toilet window inside the stadium.

It was said he could have made the world top 10 if he had focussed on his sport but table tennis was never going to be big enough for Jimmy Langan. He went on to become a bookmaker, a gambler who played high stakes poker in Las Vegas before eventually settling down to run a furniture business in Dublin.

He is survived by his wife Katherine and four children to whom deepest sympathy is extended.

European Youth Championships RESULTS LINK
JB: Junior boys lost 3-1 to Greece with J Murphy playing brilliantly & fighting strongly to win 1 singles. Ireland then lost 3-1 to Lithuania, Conor Nolan winning 1 & P Graham losing narrowly in 5th. Ireland beat Luxembourg 3-1, with P Graham clinching victory with 3/1 win over No. 3. Then Luxembourg beat Greece 3-2!. All nail biting stuff.

Junior Girls lost 3-0 in opening match with Portugal and lost 1/3 to Moldova with E. Dennet winning at No. 3 over Aliona Ni. In the second stage Ireland lost 3-2 to Scotland and beat Moldova 3-0. Macadonia beat the Junior Girls 3-0 and Italy beat them 3-1

Jing Yi reports : Average conditions; poor food; strong JG Team Spirit, but recognises that several EYC Jun & Cad players are destined for top of Euro Seniors and will challenge Asian players in 5 years; She says that Ireland has a long way to go, and needs strong discipline and management.
Thanks to A.Strong & J.O'Donoghue

ITTA Mourns Ex-International
It is with sadness that I have to report the sudden death of former table tennis International Jim Langan, who died yesterday from a massive heart attack.

Jim was one of the characthers of our sport and will always be remembered by his International team mates.
R.I.P.

Tony Martin
ITTA Secretary

European Disabled Table Tennis Championships 2003
Galway's Ronan Rooney and Rena Mc Carron have returned home after competing in the European Table Tennis Championships for disabled in Zagreb, Croatia.

Rena McCarron had a very successful tournament, while Ronan Rooney felt he played well and had a number of good results, including beating Paul Rosnec of Norway and also defeating R. Brauner of Israel.

Rena Mc Carron was delighted to secure a bronze medal in the Team Event with team mates Eimer Breathnach and Kathleen Reynolds [both from Dublin]. On route to the bronze medal they defeated a strong English team and lost to France, the eventually gold medal winners. They were the underdogs going in to face the favourites, a German team in the playoff for the bronze. However the Irish ladies scored a 3/Nil victory.

In her singles, Rena McCarron finished second in her group beating Italy's C. Ploner. She then met the gold medallist and No. 1 seed M. Bartheidel [Germany] where she was very unlucky losing 11/8, 12/10, 3/11 and 14/12.

Both Galway players Ronan Rooney and Rena Mc Carron now continue to compete for qualification for the Paralympics in Athens in 2004.

Congratulations and well done to all the Irish players.

European Youth Champ, Novi Sad 10th -18th July Draw
Junior Boys: Group I: GRE, LTU, LUX, IRL
Junior Girls: Group J: MDA, POR, IRL
No Cadet Teams sent.

International Youth Cup, Belgium Report by J.O'Donoghue
The teams did fairly well in Hasselt.
Junior boys got to Quarter finals but lost to a German team.Under 12 girls were good also losing out on a quarter finals place on countback but Jenny O'Donnell won 8 out of 8 in the team event

The Cadet boys were up against it in a tough age group and the Cadet girls also haad a strong section with a high standard in both sections. Players from both teams won matches but the teams did not fair out so well.

The Under 12 boys team of Mark O'Flynn, Gavin Maguire and Daniel Keenan did very well in the Under 12s competition winning two matches drawing two and losing only three.All this despite Mark picking up an injury on the Friday and being below his best on Saturday AND whacking his hand off the table on Sunday when he was in a winning position to be in the Consolation Quarter finals.He beat the guy who was in the that final on the Monday in a team match so i guess he would have had a chance to win it. Daniel Keenan was in the Semi final of the Consolation as it was. He and Gavin played well over the week.

It was a good event with a good week's training and the standard of the table tennis was very good in most of the age groups

Schools International, Largs, Scotland 27th June
U-14 Boys: Keith Knox, Mark O'Flynn, Patrick Guy, Ian Jones
NPC John O'Donoghue

U-14 Girls: Amy Tobin, Fiona Mernagh, Andrea Shorten, Aileen O'Donnell
NPC Finn Essex

Under 16 Boys Peter Graham Ross Cullen Killian Healy
NPC Richard Butler

Under 16 Girls Emma Jane Helen, Grainne McKenna
NPC Owen Kelly

Under 18 Boys John Murphy, Na Ning
NPC Alan Monks

Under 18 Girls Sabrina Conway, Linda O'Sullivan, Rachel O'Connor, Amanda Mogey
NPC Eamonn Nealon
Bernadette Nealon Chaperone

European Youth Champ, Novi Sad 10th -18th July
Junior Boys: Conor Nolan, John Murphy, Peter Graham NPC: Richard Butler
Junior Girls: Amanda Mogey, Sabrina Conway, Elizabeth Dennett, NPC: Jing Yi Gao

European Youth Olympic Festival- 26th July- 1st August
Boys: Shane Dolan, Keith Knox
Girls: Amy Tobin, Fiona Mernagh
NPC: John O'Donoghue