Ireland Wins Gold in Scotland
The Irish U18 Boys Schools Team of Na Ning and John Murphy took a dramatic win at the Schools International in Largs Scotland. The lads had already lost to the top English pair of Daniel Horner and Louis Rosenthal in the group stages but managed to win through to the Final to try and reverse the result. In an exciting match the two battled away spurred on by the tremendous support from the rest of the Irish squad. An attempt to stop the match for a lunch brake almost caused a riot within the hall and the match was continued. Na Ning and John Murphy didn't hold up lunch for long however as the powered their way past the opposition to record a glorious victory and take the Gold medal.

The Girls U18 B team of Rachel O'Connor and Amanda Mogey upset the order of things when faced with their first match against Ireland A. Amanda who arrived late due to travel problems and a very inform Rachel O'Connor, bewildered their U18 NPC Eamon Nealon when the B team ran out winners. The girls went on to take the Bronze medal.

Linda O'Sullivan and Sabrina Conway took the Silver medal in the doubles beaten by Naomi Wilson and Gemma Chapman. Linda also went on to win the consolation event after loosing out on a narrow count back in the opening group.

Golden Boys: Report by John O'Donghue (Team Mananger)
Under 18s Take Gold in the Team John Murphy and Na Ning swung into action in Largs and captured the Under 18s boys Team title for Ireland for the first time since 1997. But it proved to be more difficult than you would imagine. Down 2-0 to Wales in the Semi final it looked like the dream was over but the boys pulled themselves back from the brink by winning the doubles 3-2 and Ning beat Stephen Gertsen to leave the match poised at 2-2. John Murphy is a good player to have in your final match and he proved it once again by defeating Lee Davies 3-0 to send Ireland into the final. In the final England awaited and secure in the knowledge they had beaten Ireland in the group. John Murphy lost to Danny Horner but Na Ning squared the match at 1-1 with a win over Louis Rosenthal. the doubles was crucial and a close five set win for the Irish Boys gave Ning the task of winning the match which he did in fine style with a an easy three sets win over Danny Horner who looked already beaten from the start of the match. The team ably captained by Alan Monks did not have long to savour this victory.

Unfortunately the two boys could not repeat the feat in the singles on Sunday when they both lost in consecutive rounds to Louis Rosenthal who then lost the final to Danny Horner. In the singles best Irish performance was Amanda Mogey's runner up spot in the Under 18 girls. Sabrina Conway and Linda O'Sullivan were runners-up in the doubles and Linda won the Under 18 girls consolation. Mark O'Flynn was the beaten finalist in the under 14 Boys consolation. In the main draw of the under 14s Keith Knox lost 11-9 in the fifth to Craig Howison.

It was the best performance of an Irish team for many years and bodes well hopefully for the hosting of this event in Limerick 2004

Gold for the Girls at Blackburn Report by John O'Donoghue
It was a nine year wait but it was worth it. The Irish Girls took Gold in fine style at the Primary Schools International in Blackburn. The team of Claire Nelson, Jenny O'Donnell, Sarah Kenny and Susan Nealon beat England 7-3, Scotland 10-0, Wales 10-0 and Guernsey 10-0.As always the match against England was the crunch match.The girls, superbly prepared by Non Playing Captain Eamonn Nealon,rose to the occasion.

From the start the English team were under the cosh and with wins from Claire, Jenny and Sarah the Irish Girls were 3-1 up after the first round of singles.The crunch momnets came when Claire and Sarah dropped their next singles to leave things in the balance but the Connacht duo of Jenny and Susan secured their singles to give a 5-3 lead going into the doubles.That slender lead was enough to shift the balance with Claire and Sarah winning their doubles 3-0 and Jenny and Susan adding another one for a comprehensive 7-3 win.

Claire Nelson from Ulster turned in a superb display of Table Tennis to win the Primary Schools Individuals in Blackburn and cap a memorable weekend for the Irish girls. Right from the start of the day when she had a tricky first round group Claire looked sharp. The quarter final line up was an all Ireland versus England affair with the Number ones and twos from both countries truimphant.

Claire met the English number two Charlotte Calcutt in the semi and duly won 3-0 while Jenny O'Donnell knocked out the number one from England also 3-0. In the final it was tough for the team mates of the whole weekend to meet but the girls played a very hard fought but sporting match with Claire winning 3-1

The boys team finished fourth with narrow defeats to Wales 6-4 and Scotland 8-2 and victories 10-0 over Isle of Man and Guernsey. David Budden reached the quarter finals with a Superb 3-0 victory over the scottish number 2 Greig Matthew.Young Paul McCreery from Ulster won the consolation to give some pride back to the boys team

See website for pictures
Irish Schools Table Tennis Association

All Ireland Schools Finals, Cork 2003.

	U19 Boys		U19 Girls
1	Colaiste Choilm, Ballincollig	1	St Angelas, Cork
2	St Marys, Galway	2	St Marys Glasnevin
3	St Tiernans, Dublin	3	Fivemiletown
4	Fivemiletown
	U15 Boys		U15 Girls
1	Moyne College, Ballina	1	Ballymena Academy
2	Thurles CBS	2	St Angelas, Cork
3	St Tiernans, Dublin	3	Loretto Convent Bray
4	Fivemiletown	4	Calasanctius College, Galway
	U13 Girls		U13 Boys
1	St Angelas, Cork	1	Colaiste Choilm, Ballincollig
2	Our Ladys Grove, Dublin	2	St Tiernans, Dublin
3	Rockport, Co. Down	3	Fivemiletown
		4	St Marys, Galway

U-19 boys	Colaiste Choilm, Ballincollig	5	4	St Tiernans, Dublin
	St Marys, Galway	7	2	Fivemiletown
Final	Colaiste Choilm, Ballincollig	9	0	St Marys, Galway
3rd/4th	St Tiernans, Dublin	7	2	Fivemiletown
U-19 Girls	Fivemiletown	2	7	St Marys Glasnevin
	St Angelas, Cork	Bye
Final	St Angelas, Cork	6	3	St Marys Glasnevin
U-15 Girls	Calasanctius College, Galway	0	9	St Angelas, Cork
	Loretto Convent Bray	3	6	Ballymena Academy
Final	Ballymena Academy	5	3	St Angelas, Cork
3rd/4th	Loretto Convent Bray	8	1	Calasanctius College, Galway
U-15 Boys	Thurles CBS	7	2	Fivemiletown
	Moyne College, Ballina	7	2	St Tiernans, Dublin
Final	Moyne College, Ballina	5	4	Thurles CBS
3rd/4th	St Tiernans, Dublin	6	3	Fivemiletown
U-13 Girls	St Angelas, Cork	5	4	Our Ladys Grove, Dublin
	Rockport, Co. Down	Bye
Final	St Angelas, Cork	5	4	Rockport, Co. Down
2nd/3rd	Our Ladys Grove, Dublin	8	1	Rockport, Co. Down
U-13 Boys	Colaiste Choilm, Ballincollig	6	3	Fivemiletown
	St Marys, Galway	3	6	St Tiernans, Dublin
Final	Colaiste Choilm, Ballincollig	5	4	St Tiernans, Dublin
3rd/4th	Fivemiletown	8	1	St Marys, Galway

International Schools Invitational, Cardiff 2002.
Snippits
Disappointing results in the team event saw Ireland finish out of the medals finishing 4th in the U14 Boys, U16 Boys, U18 Boys, U16 Girls with U18 Girls finishing 5th and the U14 Girls 6th.


Singles:
John Murphy had the best performance in the singles finishing 2nd.
Peter Graham finished 3rd
John Murphy & Sean Givernaud also took 2nd in the Doubles event
Sean Givernaud, Sabrina Conway & Amanda Mogey won the consolation events in their respective age groups with Rachel O'Connor finishing 2nd.

ALL IRELAND SCHOOLS FINALS: 7th MAY 2002, IWA, DUBLIN.

ISF WORLD SCHOOLS, SENEC, SLOVAKIA 5th - 12th APRIL 2002.

Report, Results and Photos

Douglas makes major impact
Ireland grabbed impressive bronze medals in both boys and girls categories at the UK Primary Schools table tennis championships in Dublin while star of the Irish show was Danielle Douglas.

The young Lisnasharragh primary school pupil lost only once throughout the series going down narrowly in five sets to the Scottish No 1 and recording excellent victories over the leading English pair.

Danielle, from the Glenburn club, has gained valuable coaching direction from Jing Y Gao, as part of the Ulster Poett Scheme while her impressive clubmate, Patrick Guy, ensured that there was also a boys bronze medal.

Table tennis Championship results - Boys: England 10, Ireland 0; Wales 6, Ireland 4; Ireland 7, Scotland 3; Ireland 10, Guernsey 0.

Final places: 1, England; 2, Wales; 3, Ireland; 4, Scotland; 5, Guernsey

Girls: England 8, Ireland 2; Scotland 8, Ireland 2; Ireland 7, Wales 3; Ireland 10, Guernsey 0

Final places: 1, England; 2, Scotland; 3, Ireland; 4, Wales; 5, Guernsey

DUNLOP INVITATION SCHOOLS' INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Lilleshall National Sports Centre Friday 29th June - Sunday 1st July 2001
RESULTS - MEDAL TABLES

All Ireland Schools' Finals
Valley Leisure Centre, Newtownabbey. Friday 27th April 2001

The All Ireland Finals were moved to the Valley Leisure Centre where the School's Provincial Champions met in three age categories. The previous event in 2000 had seen a complete sweep of six titles for the Cork based schools. The standard of competition has increased this year and Sacred Heart from Dublin caused the first big upset when they defeated defending champions Scoil Eoin Cork. The winner of the match being the first to five Sacred Heart went into the doubles with a 4 - 2 lead. Scoil Eoin fought back to be level at 4 - 4. The result of the last doubles decided the title as the Sacred Heart pairing showed great composure to fight back and take the final set and the title.
In the U13 girls the defending champions were defeated once again with a very strong performance from Wilson's Hospital School who easily defeated both Rockport and defending Champions St.Angela's to take the title for the first time.
St.Angela's Cork who had teams competing in all the girls' age groups collected their 7th U15 Girls title and they also took the U19 title without dropping one game. Colaiste Choilm Cork repeated their success of last year to take the U15 title. The last match of the tournament was the closest of the day with North Monastery gunning for their 4th U19 title in a row. This has been done only once before by Marian College '81 - '84. The first match between Gary Noonan (N.Mon) and Robbie Becker (Gonzage College) saw some outstanding table tennis. Robbie took the first set in excellent style, with Gary equalling within the second, with neither player giving an inch the tension was palpable. At 17-16 to Gary the ball cracked and was replaced, this seemed to be the turning point with Robbie able to hold his concentration the better. He took the next the next two points to serve for the match at 18-17 and from this position Robbie Becker took the final set 21-18 and put Gonzage into a 1-0 score. Gonzage moved into a 2-0 lead when J.Spollen defeated PJ Hurley. After the singles matches were over the score was 3-3, this became 4-4 after the next two games of doubles. With an assembled crowd a nervous and tense match ensued with North Monastery finally taking the title for a record equalling 4th time. Con Higgins the North Monastery Coach was unable to attend the event for the first time in many years due to illness, it was with some relief that the combined Cork Schools teams returned to the county with four out of six titles intact. However with the Leinster teams taking both U13 titles, next year's competition could prove to be an even closer affair

Boys U13 1st Sacred Heart BNS Dublin 2nd Fivemile High School Ulster 3rd Scoil Eoin Cork	Girls U13 1st Wilson's Hospital Mullingar 2nd Rockport, Ulster 3rd St.Angela's Cork
Boys U15 1st Colaiste Choilm Cork 2nd Fivemile High School Ulster 3rd St.Kevin's Dublin 4th St.Mary's Galway	Girls U15 1st St.Angela's Cork 2nd Fivemile High School Ulster 3rd St.Nessan's Dublin
Boys U19 1st North Monastery Cork 2nd Gonzage College, Leinster 3rd RBAI Ulster 4th St.Aloysius Athlone	Girls U19 1st St.Angela's Cork 2nd Moyne College Ballina 3rd St.Mary's Galway 4th Cookstown High School