Douglas Huston Ulster Open, November 2015

Mia, Art, Dillon & Sadbh made their way to Lisburn for the Douglas Huston Ulster Open.  The event attracted top class junior and senior players from Ireland as well as abroad.

FRIDAY

Art & Mia played the Men's and Women's singles on Friday evening with Mia qualifying through to the final stages on Saturday.  She beat the Ireland number 1 to qualify for the semi-finals against the Welsh no. 1 who knocked Mia out and went on to win the trophy.

SATURDAY

Mia, Art & Dillon played in the U15 events on Saturday while Sadbh took part in the U11 event.

Mia got through to the final beating Natasya Barry of Connaught to take the U15 gold.

In the boys event Dillon was knocked out of the quarter finals by Alan Pattison and Art played an exciting semi-final match against the Swedish player Jonathan McDonald.  It was a close match which went to the fifth set. Art was knocked out but beat Alan Pattison for the bronze trophy.

Sadbh won all her matches to win the U11 girls event.

Art & Dillon paired up for the Men's Doubles event.  They went through to the consolation event after losing to Dylan Grace and Alan Walsh of Ballincollig but were knocked out in the final.

Mia played the Women's Doubles event with Zofia Wawryzniak to win the consolation final.

SUNDAY

On Sunday, Mia played in the U18 girls and Art, Dillon & Sadbh took part in the U13 event.

There were some great games throughout the day and Mia came through her matches with a second gold after meeting Nya Nyugen in the final.

Sadbh played some great matches and took 2nd place in the Band 1 final of the U13 girls.

Dillon & Art made it through to the semi-finals of the U13 boys to meet their old rivals David Taylor and Thomas Joyce from Connaught.  Art beat David for a place in the final but it wasn't to be for Dillon who eventually took 3rd place position.  Art and Thomas played a thrilling final which went to the fifth set with Art winning 11-9 to take the gold.

Well done to all - you made the club proud!

Read more about the Ulster Open results here

 

New club shirt for Griffeen Valley

We have a new club shirt!

Looking good!

Leinster Junior Metropolitan - 2nd Leinster ranking of the season

The 2nd Leinster ranking tournament of the season attracted many young players from the province and there was quite a buzz at Palmerstown Community School on November 8th.

The players from Griffeen Valley Table Tennis had a fantastic day!

Mia won both the U18 and U15 girls tournament, while Art took 1st place in the U13 and U15 boys event.  Dillon took 2nd place in U13 and 3rd place in U15.

Omar came 2nd in the U18 boys plate while Ravi took silver in the U15 boys plate.  Tim and Masem met in the U13 boys plate final with Tim winning the plate.

In U11 girls Sadbh came 1st, Aine 3rd and Anna 4th.  In the Under 11s Paul and Joe both won some matches and went home with medals

Well done to all our players for taking part.

Congratulations to Mia on her selection to represent Ireland in the individual event at the Senior Six Nations in Lisburn November 13th-15th - Good luck!

Great performance from Griffeen in first Leinster Junior of the season

Palmerstown Community School provided the venue for the first Leinster Junior Classification of the season.

For some of our players it was their first time playing in a Leinster competition. The U13 and U18 events were played in the morning.  Mia O'Rahilly Egan played in the U18 girls event and Bence Gellert, Masem Ali, Tim Mullaney, Dillon Byrne and Art McLaughlin entered the U13 boys event.

Bence had to play club mate Dillon in the first round with Dillon going through.  Tim went through to the second round but was knocked out at this stage.  Masem made it into the U13 plate competition final and won!  Art & Dillon met in the final with Art winning 3-0 to take 1st place and Dillon 2nd place in the U13 event.  

Mia played a great match against Kate Whelan (Mountrath) narrowly losing to take 2nd place in the U18 event.

The U15 and U11 events started in the afternoon.  Ravi Seth, Art & Dillon took part in the boys and Mia O'Rahilly Egan took part in the girl's event.  Ravi went into the U15 plate competition and finished in 2nd place.

Art & Dillon came through the 2nd round grouping to meet each other again in the semi-final.  Art got through to the final against Paddy Vaughan (Mountrath).  A 3-0 victory saw Art do the double by winning the U15 boys event.

Mia got through to the final of the U15 girls but lost out to Jessie Hayes (Mountrath) to take home the 2nd place trophy.

Paul Lynch took part in the U11 boys event and played very well.  Aine Carles, Anna Gellert and Sadbh McLaughlin took part in the U11 girls.  The girls put up a great performance with Sadbh taking 1st place and Aine taking 2nd place.

What a great day for the club.  Well done to all who took part!!

Griffeen Valley players star in first National event 2015/2016

Irish Junior Classification, NBA Tallaght - September 19th/20th 2015

Day 1

Under 13 boys

Dillon Byrne and Art McLaughlin competed in the U13 event on Saturday. Both went through to the semi-finals - Dillon had to play Thomas Joyce of Mayo Academy and Art met Matthew Cherry (Glenburn). It was not to be for Dillon with Thomas going through. Art had a 3-0 victory over Matthew to meet Thomas in the final.

The match was hard fought and went to a tight fifth set with eventually Art losing 11-8 to take the silver trophy. Dillon came 3rd to take the bronze after a victory against Matthew.

Art & Dillon with 2nd / 3rd place trophies U13

Day 2

U15 boys & girls

The two boys went into battle again in the U15 event (Cadet boys). They were joined in this event by club mate Ravi Seth. Ravi had to play Dillon and Paddy Vaughan (Mountrath) in the first group. Dillon and Art got through their 1st round but had to meet in the 2nd grouping along with Thomas Joyce and Ethan Duffy. It was a tough group and only two could go through to the quarter finals. Art and Dillon had to play each other to decide and Art qualified.

Next he had to play Paddy Vaughan of Mountrath. Art won the match 3-1 and met Conor Nugent (Glenburn) in the semi-final. This match was a great display of junior table tennis which went to the 5th set. Conor was victorious and went on to win the Cadet boys. Art beat Alan Pattison of Dundrum to take 3rd place.

Mia O'Rahilly Egan played in the Cadet girls event. She qualified from her first group and went on to beat Nicole Scott (Glenburn), Pravesha Ragi (Hilton Grove) and Lucy Craig (Glenburn) to qualify top from round 2. She faced Zofia Wawrzyniak (Leeside) in the final. Mia took the gold after a 3-1 victory!

Art - 3rd - Cadet Boys

Mia - 1st - Cadet Girls

U11 - Hopes Event

Paul Lynch played in his first Hopes event and enjoyed the day with plenty of matches. Sadbh McLaughlin and Aine Carles entered the girls Hopes and had lots of fun. Sadbh won all her matches to come first - well done Sadbh.

Griffeen Valley players that took part in the first National event of 2015/2016 season

More pictures from the day here

Six Nations Senior Schools International 2015

Mia travelled over to Perth in Scotland as part of the Irish Senior Schools team for the Six
Nations Senior Schools on Friday 28th June. Her teammate on the U14 girls team was Natasya Barry. 

On the Friday night the girls got off to a great start beating Isle of Man 5-0 and Scotland B 4-1.

Saturday was a busy day starting off with a match against Wales. Mia played Anna Hursey, the Welsh nine year old. Mia was 2 sets to 1 and 7/5 down when coach Gavin Maguire called a time out. This proved decisive and Mia came back to win in 5 sets! 

Mia and Natasya had won the doubles and the final score against Wales was 3-2. Matches against England A and England B were tough and Mia and Natasya went down 4-1 and 5-0 respectively. Mia scored an excellent win against Charlotte Bardsley the English number 1. With a victories against Guernsey 5-0 and 3-2 v Scotland A, Mia and Natasya ended up getting bronze. A great result.

The individual competition took place on Sunday. Mia beat Lauren from Wales and then lost to Charlotte Bardsley 3-1 so Mia came out of her group in 2nd place.

In the last sixteen Mia bt Scotland's Jenny Yang in 5 sets. In the quarter final Mia lost to Gauri (English no. 2) in 5 sets. Gauri ended up getting silver losing to her teammate Charlotte in the final. Mia was happy with her weekend and felt she played at a high and consistent standard.  Well done Mia!

Team Ireland at Senior Schools International 2015 included Mia O'Rahilly Egan

Donie receives Vivienne Barry Fair Play Award

Donie Mullally received the Vivenne Barry Fair Play Award 2015 at the ITTA AGM on June 13th.

Donie with Vivienne Barry Fair Play Award 2015

During this year’s Munster Open, Donie finished third in his U-18 first round group (by the tightest of countbacks).

Due to an oversight, a UCD player was unfortunately overlooked in the Plate draw and the player that he should have played went on to meet Donie in the Plate quarter final (a match which Donie won). Only after this match, was it realised that this UCD player had not had his last 16 match. The player that UCD should have met had left the arena by the time this became apparent, unaware that anything was amiss.

When Donie was approached he agreed immediately to play him even though Donie was already in the Plate semi-final.  He knew that if he lost, he would not even have the consolation of success in the Plate. 

Donie won comfortably, but it displayed his great sportsmanship by agreeing to play, especially when he had already been disappointed not to make the main knockout event.

Congratulations to Donie - the club is proud!