Newtownards Round Robin

Played at the NewtownArds Leisure Centre Saturday 24th

While our younger players were up North playing in the Fermanagh Junior Open, we had 4 players travelling to Newtownards for this Senior Round Robin Event limited to 48 players.

Some top seniors entered included Na Ning (Irish No 1 Men's) and Liu Na, one of the top female players in Ireland and England. The tournament came with a guarantee of 9 matches in groups stages. It was an ideal opportunity to get plenty of quality matches for our players against some older and very experienced players. Our group included Sara Dolan, Sam Logue, Sam Hanley and Dan Keenan.

Dan finished second in his group losing to Paul Mc Creery. As the second round was made up of two group winners and two group runners up, Dan ended up in the group of Death along with Sam Hanley and the very experienced Peter Clarke. As if that wasn't tough enough, Na Ning made up the 4th place in the group. Sam conceded an early lead to his clubmate and training partner, Dan, eventually losing that game. However, he then beat Peter Clarke who went on to beat Dan. Na Ning won the group while second place was determined through countback with Peter going through. This was an unfortunate setback as Sam finished third and could only play for 9th to 12th place and Dan finished 4th in the group, only being eligible for the 13th to 15th playoffs. This was a bit frustrating because on recent form both players would have been able to compete well in the top 8 but for this European style format. Sara Dolan had some great matches but a German player Bernard Wagner who she had beaten twice in the day ended up finishing 3 places above her. Sam Logue also had some great matches one in particular against Willie Cherry, a top Ulster Senior. Sam lost in the 5th having been two up. He also met Sam Hanley in this group for 9th to 12th losing 0 V 3.

So for Sam and Dan possibly the match against each other cost them a far higher finish. As for Sara and Sam Logue some challenging matches against very experienced players will prove as vital experience and will aid their table tennis development.

Any of these plyers could have opted to go to Fermanagh and challenged for trophies but they went to the Senior Round Robin for better Table Tennis and got plenty of that!

Sam Hanley 9th
Sam Logue 11th
Dan Keenan 13th
Sara Dolan 28th

(Account by Paul Dolan)