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!

First club night for Griffeen Valley Table Tennis Club

Welcome to all who attended the first club night (7th May) for Griffeen Valley Table Tennis Club! 

There were some new faces on the night and also our regulars who enjoyed the new premises at Griffeen Valley Educate Together National School in Lucan.

Junior Interprovincials 2015, Little Island, Cork - 18th April

A number of our players headed to Cork to represent their province in the last tournament of the table tennis season – the Junior Interprovincials 2015. 

The coveted Victor Barna shield was won by Leinster after going down to the wire against some strong Ulster teams. 

Art and Dillon's U13 boys team took gold along with Mia’s U13 girls team coached by Conor Mullally and Jacqui Mullally respectively. 

At the tournament Mia was presented with a trophy for ending the season as No. 1 in Ireland U13 girls player and Art was awarded U13 player of the tournament. 

Some images from the day:

U13 NPCs - Jacqui Mullally & Conor Mullally

Mia presented with trophy as overall winner U13 for Season 2014-2015

Art won U13 player of the tournament

Primary Schools International, Blackburn, England - 10th-12th April, 2015

Club players Mia O'Rahilly Egan, Art McLaughlin and Dillon Byrne were all selected to play for Ireland at an important international tournament in the junior table tennis calendar. The venue was Blackburn, England 10th-12th April where the top four U13 players from Ireland (boys and girls) represented their country against teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey.

Primary Schools boys & girls team included Mia, Dillon & Art

After a tough start on Friday against Scotland the girl’s team managed to emerge victorious with gold medals. Mia O’Rahilly Egan then went on to take bronze in the girls singles event.

The Irish boys team got off to a flying start beating Guernsey and Isle of Man. After beating a tough Scottish team the following morning, they met a solid English team. While most matches were very close, England eventually emerged winners. However, the Irish boys went on to beat all the remaining countries to take 2nd place silver home.

In the singles event Art McLaughlin came back from 2-0 down to knock out the Scottish number 1 and eventually took bronze.

National Junior Championships, 21st-22nd March 2015

Some images from the National Junior Championships:

Mia O'Rahilly Egan came 2nd in the U13 girls

Art McLaughlin took 3rd in the U13 boys

Some of our younger players also took part in the Hopes U11 series

Girls U11 Hopes

Luke in action

Mia

Donie

Art

Dillon

Sadbh