Cork Table Tennis Association AGM

Message from Cork Chairman

"The Agm of Cork Table Tennis Association will be held at 8pm at Whitehorse Inn Ballincollig (upstairs meeting room) on Thursday 13th May 2004."

Please pass this on to any one who may be interested in attending. I would hope that Clubs would encourage their players and parents to attend. "

Regards
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Michael Healy
Mobile 087 2435518
e-mail mhealy@eircom.ie

Message from Beech Hill Chairman

"Please support Cork Table Tennis by attending the AGM. There is plenty work to be done and it's up to everyone to lend a hand. The more people who help the less others will have to do"

Regards

Rory O'Connor
Club Chairman

Munster Branch AGM

Message from Beech Hill Chairman

"The Annual General Meeting of the Munster Branch will take place at the Country Club Hotel, Middle Glanmire Road, Montenotte, Cork on Wednesday 26th May 2004 at 8pm sharp. All affiliated members are entitled to attend this meeting. If you are not there you cannot influence decisions that may be taken. Be there and make a positive contribution. It may be to your benefit"

Regards

Rory O'Connor
Club Chairman

Summer Training

The club will remain open for training until Thursday 8th July 2004. The club is conscious that some members are doing exams and that these members may not be at training before and during their exams. However the club requests that they return to training as soon a possible after they complete their exams.

For those players travelling to the UK they will be expected to continue training as normal between now and July. We will break in July until the middle of August.

Check Archives for previous seasons news

Beech Hill reopens on Sat 17th with training 10 am to 1pm

Normal training times after that

Beech Hill Closed for renovations

There will be no training on Monday 5th. Thursday 8th Monday 12th and Thursday 15th. This is to accommodate renovation works to be carried out to the lighting system. The club regrets any inconvenience but the new lighting system will be of benefit and a two week closure is a very small price to pay.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CAMP IS GOING AHEAD ON GOOD FRIDAY & HOLY SATURDAY

West Cork Open 2004

Seniors
Beech Hill players travelled to Dunmanway with the strange results from a week earlier in fresh in their minds. With our Senior Ladies unable to attend the opportunity was there for some of our Juniors and Katie McSweeney took full advantage by reaching the Final only to loose out to West Cork's Emma-Jane Helen. In Senior Men Philip Shaw took 4th place with the win also going to West Cork, to an in-form Owen Kelly.

Juniors
In Junior Boys our Cadets took a joint 5th with Dara Kelleher and Ian Shellard. Our Junior Girls always put in a solid performance and this event was no exception. With Munster ranking points very much on their minds, Katie McSweeney reached the Semi-finals to be beaten by Emma-Jane Helen while in the other Semi Clare O'Callaghan and Kelby Duggan played out another 5 set marathon with Clare coming out on top on this occasion. Clare faced Emma-Jane in the Final with the result going to the West Cork Girl. Katie took the 3rd/4th play-off..

Cadets
With the dissappointment of last week not too far away our cadet boys made no mistake this time with Ian Shellard and Ruairi Oliver contesting yet another Final. However the win of the day must go to Dara Kelleher who played his best table tennis in the quarters to best last weeks runner up, John Costello from Thurles, over 5 sets. Dara lost to Ian in the Semi's and lost the 3rd/4th to last seeks winner, James Herley from Ballincollig.

Under 12's
In under 12 Boys Scott Shellard was bitterly dissappointed to loose the final to James Herley in 5 sets. With the score at 9/5 to Scott not too many would have bet against Scott reversing last weeks result, but young Herley dug deep and fashioned a well deserved victory.

Under 10's
The future of Beech Hill is secure if the results of the U10's is anything to go by. Cliodhna Kelly put in her usual solid performance to reach the final, which last season she would have been expected to win easily. Cliodhna defeated club-mate Cliona O'Shaughnessy in the first of the semi's. However this year Cliodhna was not to have things all her own way. Two more Beech Hill girls reached the other semi-final, Aisling Healy and Kayley O'Leary. The more experiences Aisling won this semi and then faced Cliodhna in the final which turned out to be an excellent 5 set with the win eventually going to Cliodhna.

Thanks
Well done to Vickey, Ian & Owen for running a very enjoyable event.

Munster Junior Ranking - Ballincollig

• Jo Flahive took a very well deserved and long awaited win in the Juniors.
• Emily D'Arcy battled her way to her 3rd consecutive Cadet title.
• Ruairi and Ian stumble at the semi's of the Cadets but finish 4th and 5th in the Junior.
• Scott reaches final only to loose out to a very in form James Herley
• Aisling Healy tales her 1st Under 10 title
• Stiga sponsorship for Evelyn Mullane

Ballincollig Table Tennis Club hosted their first Munster Ranking 7th Feb at Colaiste Choilm and did an excellent job.

The tournament itself threw up some strange results for Beech Hill players. The biggest shock of the day came in the Junior girls when the top 4 seeds finished the event in reverse order. Katie McSweeney had the toughest run to the semi final with Andrea Shorten in the Quarters. This set up the first all Beech Hill semi-final with Clare O'Callaghan and 5 sets later Katie had booked her place in the final. Meanwhile Jo Flahive was causing a major upset at the other end of the hall in the other all Beech Hill semi by defeating Kelby Duggan to reach her first ever final. The final went all the way to 5 sets with neither player prepared to take too many chances with both prepared to push their way to victory and in the end Jo emerged victorious.

Under 14 girls saw the top seed Emily D'Arcystruggle in the early rounds loosing to Orla O'Reilly in 5 sets to emerge from her group in 2nd place. No 2 seed Evelyn Mullane had an easier passage to the Semi's where she met Marie McSweeney having defeated Samanta O'Connor in the quarters. Emily beat Elodie Grabe in the quarters to set up another encounter with Orla in the semi's. Emily looked in real trouble 2 set down after 2 but clawed her way back into the match to eventually take the fifth 13/11 to set up an all Beech Hill final with Evelyn Mullane. Unlike the Juniors there was no upset on the cards here and the result went in line with the seedings giving Emily a 100% record for the season and Evelyn content with 2nd and the start of a Stiga sponsorship.

Under 14 Boys saw Ian & Ruairi playing below their best form on a day when John Costello and James Herley were in top form resulting in both making their exit in the semi-finals. John and James went on to play an excellent Final with James victorious. Ian took 3rd place.

In the Under 17 Boys Ian and Ruairi seemed to have the pressure lifted and they played much better with Ian being knocked out in the quarters by David Buckley who went on to win the event. Ian eventually came 5th , winning all his 5 to 8 playoff matches. Ruairi made it to the semi-finals to be defeated by Eoin Hegarty.

Scott Shellard made it to the Under 12 final to be defeated by James Herley in a very entertaining final. The match was the last match to be played and it was great for these young players to play to a crowd.

Under 10 Girls saw Aisling Healy win her first tournament from another Beech Hill girl Kayley O'Leary with Rebecca Myers also Beech Hill in 3rd place. The girls under 10 was played on a round robin basis with the top 3 all with 3 victories and 1 defeat a count back was called for. With the aid of the proposed computer system to be used for the Stiga Junior Top 12 in April, which just happened to be to hand, the results were imput and the outcome gave Aisling Healy victory with more sets for. Kayley and Rebecca were then separated on sets against with Kayley taking 2nd place and Rebecca 3rd. It was also a good day for Beech Hill under 10's and a good test of the computer system.

Report on Munster Open 2004 By Michael Healy

SUGRUE AND McCREEVY CROWNED "KINGS OF PING" AT MUNSTER OPEN

Gurranabraher's Parochial Hall in Cork was the venue for one of the biggest events on the Irish Table Tennis calendar from 16th to 18th Jan. The Muster Schools Cup preceded 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.
A large number of sponsors supported the Munster Open event, including, Experto Flooring, Doughcloyne Court Ind Est, Wilton; Munster Special Olympics; Savanna Peanut Distribution Ltd; Fitzgerald & Associates Accountants, Sullivans Qy, Cork; permanenttsb; Secure Document Storage Ltd, Sunbeam Business Pk, Old Mallow Rd; Dwyers Electrical, Southside Ind Est, and IPA Consulting, Sullivans Qy, Cork. Also supporting the event are Celtic Table Tennis (Tibhar) and Tommy Fitzgerald Table Tennis (Stiga), two equipment providers.

With the Munster Open 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 Listowel, Co. Kerry. In the semi-finals Sugrue get the better of Damian Lynch 11/9, 11/9, 11/8 while Ning defeated the fast improving Under-17 player Peter Graham 13/11, 11/8, 11/7. Other excellent performances came from David Hayes in defeating John Murphy 11/6 in the fifth set to reach the top eight, Peter Graham beating John Bowe 11/8 also in the fifth set and Shane Dolan taking Conor Nolan to the fifth set only to lose 11/8 in round 2. There were a few upsets also in the first round with local West Cork player Owen Kelly from Goleen causing the biggest shock at the Munster Open beating Irish No.8 Marcus McDonnell in the first round. Owen went on to reach the last 16 to have his best Irish Ranking result ever to finish 9=.
The ladies final saw Michelle McCreevy (Ulster), at the Munster Open for the first time, take out Irish No.1 Tara Fusco (Leinster) in a courageous semi final 11/13, 13/11,7/11, 11/5, 11/8. Elizabeth Dennett (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 11/6, 7/11, 11/4, 10/12, 11/7. However Elizabeth wasn't able to topple Michelle and the ladies title took the long trip up to Belfast on a score of 13/11, 11/6, 4/11, 11/7. Other good performances here were Louise Long taking Tara Fusco to four sets and Teresa Devany taking Elizabeth Dennett to the fifth set only to lose 11/7, in the quarter finals.
In the Under-21 Ladies event Sabrina Conway had a victory over Linda O'Sullivan, Cork with Rachel O'Connor, Cork taking 3rd place from Anna D'Arcy also of Cork. Elizabeth Dennett from England made it a good day for the foreign players taking the Junior title (Under-17) from Amanda Mogey 7/11, 11/9, 11/6, 15/13. In the semi-finals Amy Tobin took Elizabeth to the fifth set only to lose 11/7 and Fiona Mernagh took Amanda to four sets 11/6, 11/8, 5/11, 11/8. Amy finished 3rd with Fiona 4th.
Fiona Mernagh took her revenge in the Under-14 event beating Amy Tobin in three sets. Both of the semi-finals went to five sets with Fiona Mernagh beating Fiona Dennett 9/11, 13/11, 7/11, 13/11, 12/10 and Amy Tobin having a 7/11, 11/4, 7/11, 11/6, 11/9 victory over Julianne Forbes. Fiona Dennett finished 3rd with Julianne 4th.
There was another great five-setter in the Under-12 girls semi-final with Chloe Nelaon winning from Robyn Braun 5/11, 11/7, 6/11, 11/9, 11/9. Jenny O'Donnell beat Rebecca Kenny in the other semi and Jenny also got the better of Chloe Nelaon in the final 11/4, 11/5, 7/11, 11/9. Rebecca took 3rd place with Robyn 4th.
A popular winner of the U21 Mens title was Conor Fahy who overcame Darragh Keegan from Athlone in the final. This turned out to be a very exciting game 11/7, 9/11, 11/5, 9/11,11/6 with some fine table tennis being played in a see-saw battle. Brian Farrell finished 3rd with Simon Holohan 4th.
The winner of the U-17 Boys title was John Murphy who has a victory over Peter Graham in the final 11/7, 9/11, 11/9, 11/9. John took his revenge in the semi-final by beating David Hayes, who had beaten him in the senior event the previous day. Peter Graham overcame Keith Knox in the other semi-final 11/7, 13/11, 11/8. David finished 3rd with Keith 4th.
The Under-14 title went to the favourite, Keith Knox who had a victory over the improving Niall McDonnell 11/5, 9/11, 11/7, 11/8. Keith had earlier beaten Mark O'Flynn in one semi-final with Niall beating Gavin Maguire in the other semi. Even the ¾ playoff went to five sets with Mark beating Gavin 9/11, 13/11, 11/7, 7/11, 11/8.
TheUnder-12 Boys event went to Neal O'Flynn with a 12/14, 4/11, 11/6, 11/9, 11/6 victory over Paul McCreery in another battling performance. Pual had earlier beaten Sam Hanley 11/9 in the fifth set in one semi and Neal overcame Garbhan McCabe in the other semi. Sam finished 3rd with Garbhan 4th.
The Class 2 event saw Felix Abiddun beat Patrick Green in one semi-final and Colin Byrne overcome Robert Gavin in the other. Felix went on to win a fine match against Colin Byrne late on Sun evening 11/7, 7/11, 11/4, 11/8 to win the Class 2 event.
In the Mens doubles Na Ning reached another final with his partner John Bowe and this time they were too strong for the John Murphy/Conor Nolan combination, winning 11/8, 11/5, 3/11, 11/7. In the semi-finals Ning/Bowe had a result over Graham & Hayes 14/12 in the 4th set and Murphy & Nolan overcame Damian Lynch & Marcus McDonnell 15/13 in the 4th set also.
Ladies Doubles saw Rachel O'Connor(Cork) & Eliz Dennet overcome the Cork pair of Louise Long and Linda O'Sullivan in the semi-final, and Sabrina Conway/ Teresa Devanny win over Rhonda Fox / Tara Fusco. In the final O'Connor/ Dennett had an 8/11, 11/8, 6/11, 11/7, 11/8 victory over Conway/ Devanny.
In the Mixed Doubles Nolan/Devanny beat Murphy/Conway 11/9, 14/12, 11/9 and Ning/Dennett beat Bowe/Fusco 9/1, 7/11, 11/6, 11/6, 11/8 in the semi-finals. Nolan/Devanny went on to record a victory over Ning/Dennett in the Final. The Mens Vets saw a victory for Tommy Caffrey over Peter McCabe, with two Cork players Dan Foley and Philip Shaw making it to the semi-finals. The Ladies Vets was won by Phyllis Kenny from Vicky Ridgeway.

Seniors Night

All Senior members are invited to the Country Club Hotel on Friday 19th from 8:30pm onwards for a festive get together.
Unfortunately our Junior members are not permitted to attend under the new licencing laws.

Beech Hill Open 2003

Unfortunately there was no Under 10 Boys event and this must be source of concern and a matter to be addressed immediately by CTTA and Munster Branch.

Beech Hill took the under 10 Girls with favourite Cliodhna Kelly taking the honours. New comer Rebecca Myres did very well to take 2nd place ahead of ranked players Cliona O'Shaughnessy and Ballincollig's Aisling Healy.

At Under 12's our Boys are scarce with just 2 entries however Scott Shellard continued his winning ways and Mark O'Sullivan took the plate in his first outing. In the Girls event Cliodhna Kelly did very well to get to the Final only to be beaten by Sinead Hennessy from Kinneigh.

Beech Hill took a 1st and 2nd in the Under 14 Boys with Ian Shellard and Ruairi Oliver giving us a very entertaining Final. Scott Shellard took a very good 4th place.

With St.Angela's and the Ursulines missing from this event the Under 14 Girls had a very small entry and another worring aspect . Emily D'Arcy took her 2nd title of the season.

Under 17 Boys Ruairi Oliver finished 6th

In Under 17 Girls with Kelby Duggan missing due to flu there were ranking points up for grabs and Katie McSweeney put in a fine performance to reach her first Junior Final and Jo Flahive wasn't far behind in 3rd place.

In Senior Men Milos Soukup revenged his defeat in Thurles by taking the Senior Men's event with Philip Shaw 3rd. Louise Long took the Senior Ladies.with Linda O'Sullivan 2nd and Anna D'Arcy 3rd.

Linda O'Sullivan took the U21's and Philip Shaw took the Vets..

New County Umpires

Congrats to Louise Long, Kim Sin Yap, Rory O'Connor and Philip Shaw on completing their County Umpire Course

Novice Event 18th October 2003

Beech Hill Table Tennis Club was the venue for a Novice event designed to cater for under 12's. There was an excellent entry, and most had not sampled serious competition prior to this. To introduce an element of competition, players with Munster rankings were handicapped when competing against those who had not. This made for some interesting results with a number of ranked players failing to make it to the final stages.

In the Girls competition there were 15 entrants. In group 1, the surprise was Susan McGrath from St. Angela's College taking 2nd place in the behind Cliodhna Kelly and ahead of Aisling Healy of Ballincollig. In Group 2, Maedhbh Kelly overcame her -6 handicap to top the group with another Beech Hill girl Rebecca Myers taking a very close 2nd. The 3rd place went to Cliona Mulvihill of St. Angela's College. An all Beech Hill Group 3 saw seeded Cliona O'Shaughnessy pushed into 2nd place by Vicky McNamara with Jade Lonergan taking 3rd.

The second round saw those who finished in the top 3 position in their groups proceed into the main competition and the other competitors proceed to the consolation event.

In the main event Group 1 there was a 3 way tie for first place between Beech Hill sisters Cliodhna Kelly, Madehbh Kelly and Ballincollig's Aisling Healy. Unable to resolve the tie by their results against each other a play-off was called for and the Beech Hill girls Cliodhna and Maedhbh proceeded to the Semi-finals. In group 2 Rebecca Myers topped the group undefeated but there was a 3 way tie between Vicky McNamara, Jade Lonergan and Susan McGrath for 2nd place, with the St. Angela's girl Susan McGrath joining Rebecca Myres in the Semi-final.

Despite their handicap the more experienced players Maedhbh and Cliodhna advance to the final. In the 3rd 4th play-off Rebecca Myers from Beech Hill took 3rd spot with Susan McGrath 4th. The final went to the older of the Kelly sisters, Maedhbh, with Cliodhna taking the runners-up medal.

The consolation medals went to 1st Emma Ross {Beech Hill}, 2nd Kayleigh O'Leary {Beech Hill}, 3rd Aoife Cafferky {Ballincollig}.

There was an entry of 16 for the boys event with 12 of these coming from the Ballincolling club. Group 1 was won by Barry Marshell with Donnacha Gleeson 2nd who despite their handicap were too strong for Jamie Normile and Noel Gillen. Jamie Normile took the 3rd spot with Noel Gillen and Dylan Kirstein going into the consolation event.

All the players in group 2 were Munster ranked and in a straight dog fight for places James Herley came out on top with Patrick Xie and Joe Sherlock taking the remaining 2 places in the main event. Scott Shellard and Greg Hayes had to be content with the Consolation event. Colm Galagher, Niel O'Donovan and Ronan O'Leary all proceeded from group 3 to the main event.

The 2nd round saw Patrick Xie head group 1, with James Herley 2nd and both proceeded to the semi- finals. Semi-finalists from group 2 were Joe Sherlock and Colm Gallagher. In the First semi-final Patrick Xie beat Colm Gallagher and James Herley progressed to the final at the expense of Joe Sherlocks. In the 3rd 4th play-off, Joe took 3rd place ahead of Colm while James Herley beat Patrick Xie in the final.

The event started appoox 20 minutes late but thanks to the efficiency of the Desk it finished on time and within budget at 5PM.

There was a great atmosphere at the event. Many of the parents remained on the view the matches and almost all stayed for the medal presentations also. There was also a bit of fun as players who did not respond to their first call to a table were given a mere 10 seconds on the second call and with the treat of being scratched hanging over them they were counted down to the table by the attendance. Interestingly no players was scratched as they all beat the "Clock"

Thanks to Con O'Callaghan, Clare O'Callaghan, Jo Flahive and Rebecca McCarthy who ran the desk most efficiently. Also to the umpires Philip Shaw, Louise Long, Katie McSweeney, Anna D'Arcy, Emily D'Arcy, Jo-Anne O'Sullivan, Stephanie Lehane, Dara Kelleher, who also set up the hall and tidied everything away when to event was over. - Well done all !!!!!!!!!!.

VOTE OF SYMPATHY

It is with regret that the club recieved the news of the untimely death of Denis Mullane's mother. Denis, who is a member of the Thurles Table Tennis Club, has been a frequent visitor over the years to our club to attend tournament and training camps.

On behalf of the Management Committee, Players and Coaches the club extends its deepest sympathy to Denis.

Irish Junior Ranking
The first Irish junior ranking of the season was held in Dublin October 4th & 5th. Most of our players got to the second round and most were beaten in to 2nd place in their respective groups. There were some solid performances over the weekend with Katie McSweeney loosing out narrowly to Fiona Megnagh in the 5th set , second round. Rebecca McCarthy kept her best performances for the Under 19 mixed where she was beaten at the quarter finals. In the Boys Ian and Ruairi were unlucky in their 2nd round draws to be beaten in to 2nd place. Hayley Collins took 2nd in the U17 Plate
The Under 19 Mixed produced an all girls final. Rachel O'Connor disposed of a few gentlemen along the way to the semi-final where she beat Sabina Kazimagamadova 3 to 1 in a exciting match. Meanwhile Liz Dennett was proceeding along the other side of the draw to also reach the final. Liz won the final by 3 sets to 1.

New Members

There was a great response to our recent advertising in "Mayfield Matters", a local Mayfield publication which is circulated in the North East of the city. In all we received 15 new members aged between 9 and 12 and these have been with us now for 5 training sessions.

The club has arranged a tournament for these new members, in conjunction with the Cork Table Tennis Association and Ballincollig Table Tennis Club. This event will take place on Saturday 18th October. More on this later.

The club would also like to welcome Jackie Rea and Anna Kelly back to table tennis circles. Both come from St. Angela's College

Finally Welcome to Para Olympian Mike and Paudge. The club is delighted to be in a position to provide the necessary training and facilities for wheelchair athletes.

Munster Ranking Thurles - Beech Hill Results

Beech Hill players travelled to Thurles on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st for the first ranking event of the season.

Mens Vets Philip Shaw took the honours from Tom Elliott of Harlequins.

Senior men saw Junior Killian Healy from Ballincollig reach the final to face Milos Soukup. The first two sets went to Killian with Milos struggling against the pimples. However Milos clawed himself back into the match in the by taking the 3rd set and when Milos levelled matter in the 4th young Healy was looking an outside bet for victory. However Killian stuck to the game plan and took the 5th set and his first Munster Senior victory.

Senior ladies was headed up by Beech Hill girls Louise Long and Rachel O'Connor and both duly got to the final with Louise taking the Final by 3 sets to 1.

Beech Hill had under 14's Dara Kelleher and Ian Shellard both just 1st year cadets in the under 17 event. Ian finished in 7th and Dara finished 10th.

In the under 17 Girls event the top seed Kelby Duggan coasted to her first final under 17 Final. No 2 seed Claire O'Callaghan, who traditionally does not produce her best form early in the season, also made it to her first final with Kelby emerging as the winner to take her first Munster title.

Cadet boys saw Beech Hill's Ian Shellard continuing where he left off last year by getting to another Under 14 final except this time there was no Denis Mullane to contend with. Ruairi Oliver from Ballincollig was his opponent in the Final but he failed to stop you Shellard following on from his success at Dunmanway last year. Dara Kelleher was 6th and Scott Shellard was 7th.

Cadet girls saw the smallest entry for many years as there were no entried from West Cork, Ursulines, St. Angela's. The Final saw our girls, Emily D'Arcy and Evelyn Mullane contest the final with top seed Emily winning her first Munster award.

Under 12 boys saw Scott Shellard take the title from James Herley.

Community Games Finals 2003

Community games - Silver for T/A Builders Providers sponsored Mayfield Girls

Munster was represented by a very young and inexperienced Mayfield team at this years Community Games Finals in Mosney. With Katie McSweeney the only member of the panel to have sampled Mosney previously, where she returned with a Silver medal in 2001, and considering that the remainder of the panel are no more than under 13, the team travelled more in hope than high expectation.

Our first match was against an unknown Cavan side but Katie McSweeney got us off to a good start with and 11/8 11/4 11/3 to put Mayfield 1 up. However Mayfield conceded any advantage gained by Katie's win when losing the next 2 games. In the first of these 10 year old Maedhbh Kelly was no match for her much older Cavan opponent and when Evelyn Mullane went down 5/11 6/11 12/14 things were looking up for Cavan. However matters were levelled by the end of the next game when Katie McSweeney delivered another straight sets win 11/6 11/6 11/3 and when Evelyn Mullane produced a similar performance with a 13/11 11/8 11/5 win a welcome but dreaded doubles was looming. Cavan made it 3 games each by taking the 6th game with Maedhbh going down 4/11 1/11 4/11. Doubles is always a lottery as we discovered in 2001, but our girls were well drilled in doubles at Beech Hill, and this stood to them as they booked their place in the finals 11/9 11/8 11/7.

The final on Sunday was always going to be a very difficult task as the Ballina side was much stronger both in terms of players with International experience and strength in dept of their panel. Ballina took a 1 nil lead but only after Katie Mc Sweeney pushed International, Jenny O'Donnell, all way 11/9 7/11 7/11 11/8 4/11. Ballina went 2 up when Evelyn Mullane lost 1/11 8/11 9/11 to Ciara O'Donnell. Ballina made it 3 to nil but not before Katie McSweeney put in another courageous performance going down 9/11 11/5 11/8 7/11 8/11 to Aileen O'Donnell.

In the final match victory went to Ballina and Mayfield collected a well deserved Silver Medal to add the Silver in 2001 and Gold in 2000.

All in all it was a great weekend. Ivan and the lads from Ballincollig we very unlucky not to win the Gold medal, loosing to Ballina 13/11 in the 5th set of the doubles. It was very disappointing for Ivan and the lads who gave it 100% but as we've all discovered to our cost, Doubles can be a lottery.

Players on the move

Two Beech Hill players are on the move this season.
Louise Long has just passed her medical for the Boys (or should it be the Girls) in Blue and starts training in Templemore on September the 22nd. I spoke to Minister for Justice and asked him to delay her starting date to give her plenty of time to organise the going away party. I also spoke to Anthony Condron about any ideas he might have of recruiting Louise as a coach to Thurles TTC and I reminded him that there might be a little matter of a transfer fee. Anthony was last seen with the Thurles boys out doing a supermarket bag-pack. They've also picked Sept 14th (All-Ireland Sunday) to do the Church Gate collection as everyone will be at home this year.

Meanwhile Richie Butler (UCD) is currently busily arranging to sell some of his players to raise the neccesary "Spondulix" to come up with the transfer fee Rachel O'Connor's departure to the UCD Club. He did very briefly contemplated a Church Gate Collection and a bag pack but Anthony Condron threatened to sue him, claiming that he had sole rights to these fundraising ideas.So it looks like Rachel may have to get sponsorship from the auld man again this year. What's new !!!!!!!!!!!

Open Night

There is an open night on Monday 8th September 7:30pm. To our members, try and bring a new member. To anyone out there you are more than welcomre to come along.

Level I Coaching Course

All parents who wish to become more involved in coaching at the club are being encouraged to take a Level I course. The course is excellent as it teaches you the fundamental strokes and the technical details associated with each stroke. There are many other aspects to the course from Planning a training session, Warmup and cooldown routines, on table games and much more.

Please book your place (087)2840166 or email beechhilltabletennis@eircom.net

Proposed Level 1 course
Date: 12th-14th Sept 2003
Venue: Dunmanway & Kinneigh
Course Tutor: Owen Kelly
There may be a small fee

Please contact me immediately if you wish to attend as places are limited