Munster AGM
The Annual General Meeting of the Munster Branch will take place at the Country Club Hotel, Middle Glanmire Road, Montenotte, Cork on Wednesday June 1st 2005 at 8pm sharp (meeting room upstairs).

Munster Special Olympic Table Tennis Championships
The Munster Games took place on Saturday 21st May at the John Birmingham Centre in Cork. In the tranquil surroundings of the Cope Foundation the day saw the largest entry in the last 5 years with Men's and Ladies Singles, Skills events and Doubles. the event saw a good turn out of volunteers from both Cork TTA and West Cork TTA. These results will determine who will go forward to represent Munster at the National Games in 2006. Full Results will be post when available.

IYC Hasselt Update
The ballina tt club traveled to Belguim where they competed in the International youth cup c-ships held over 3 days in Hasselt. with an estimated 6051 matchs to be played in total,,1326 of this total were in the girls team events,and 603 in the girls singles events 75 clubs participating from 12 different countries More...

IYC Hasselt Irish Update
Cadet Girls Win Team GOLD in Div. 1 Fiona Dennett and Claire Nelson. Fiona also managed to reach the quarter finals of the singles. The Cadet Boys, Daniel Keenan, David Budden, Marcus Maxwell, Finish 8th in Premier Division.

IYC Hasselt J.O'Donoghue
Some more excellent news from Belgium with both the U14 Girls and U12 Boys reaching the Semi-finals of their events. Neal O'Flynn (who is still under 12 next year) was beaten 3-1 in the singles quarter final. The under 12 Boys are in the team event semi final and Neal O'Flynn (who is still under 12 next year) reached the quarter final (Lost 3-1) in the singles.

Chloe Nealon wins International Youth Cup title
I just got a phone call from proud father and Coach Eamon Nealon flying the flag from the IYC in Hasselt. Ringing from Belgium on his mobile he just had time to tell us at TTIreland that his daughter Chloe Nealon won the U11 title. Ireland didn't send an U12 Girls team.

TTIreland Comment
"Ireland didn't send an U12 Girls team to the IYC," TTIreland will post results of how the Irish teams got on. The ITTA sent 6 boys and 4 girls to this event The question why Ireland is only sending an U14 boys team to the European Youths and not a girl's U14 with the obvious talent we have at present still remains unanswered. Where is the continuity in this decision making process?

Father to sue after table tennis star is left out of Scottish team
The father of a table tennis prodigy is to sue the sport’s governing body after his daughter was omitted from the Scotland team. Rebecca Russell, 14, is Scottish under-15 champion, Scottish Schools under-16 champion and Scottish women’s champion. More...

Spanish Youth Open
Japan won both the Junior Boys and Junior Girls Team titles at the Spanish Youth Open in Platja d`Aro, Spain on Friday 13th May 2005. Jun MIZUTANI and Seiya KISHIKAWA clinched the boys’ title beating Zolt PETE and Marko JEVTOVIC of Serbia in the final whilst in the counterpart girls’ event Yuka ISHIGAKI and Shiho ONO beat their compatriots Moemi TERUI and Yuri YAMANASHI to take gold

Chinese Top of the World
China’s WANG Liqin and ZHANG Yining, who won the Men’s and Women’s Singles titles respectively at the Volkswagen 48th World Table Tennis Championships that came to a conclusion in Shanghai on Friday 6th May 2005, retain their No. 1 positions on the ITTF World Ranking Lists for May 2005

Irish Selections
International Youth Cup Hasselt, Belgium14th / 15th May 2005
U 12 Boys - S Hanley, N O'Flynn, P McCreery
U 14 Boys - D Keenan, D Budden, M Maxwell
U 14 Girls - F. Dennett, C Nelson
U 17 Girls - C O'Donnell, A Tobin
NPC's: J O'Donoghue, P Kenny, D McDonagh, A Ludlow

ZHANG Yining Queen of the World
Zhang Yining added a World Womens Singles Title to her Olympic crown while Boll and Suss make it to the Doubles Final More...

Ulster Win Junior Interpros
Ulster win 3 gold medals at U12 Boys, U14 Girls and U17 Boys to win the Junior Interpros and the Victor Barna Shield. Ulster also won Silver at U14 Boys, Bronze at U12 Girls and were 4th at U17 Girls. Leinster won 2 gold at U14 Boys and U17 Girls. Munster won Bronze at U17 Girls and U14 Boys while Connacht picked up a godl at U12 Girls, Silver at U17 Girls and Bronze at U14 Girls and U17 Boys.

Ballina TT take on the country at the national junior Interpros. by Eamon Nealon
The Ballina based club represented Connaught at the championships in all the girls age groups taking gold ,silver and bronze how things are changing. A question, Do the ITTA have an official flag of their own because I hear that the tricolour was not aloud on display at the 6 nations? More...

6 Nations Junior Champs
Ireland won Bronze with the Junior Boys and Cadet Girls. Paul McCreery won the cadet plate with r'up Gavin McGuire, Fiona Dennett also won the cadet plate beating Jenny O'Donnell and Emma Jane Helen beat Fiona Mernagh to win the Junior Girls Plate Pictures and Results

UCD Leinster & Irish Champions
University College Dublin Table Tennis Club completed an unprcedented 'treble' as they stormed to victory in the Leinster Cup, both retaining the title and adding it to the Premier League and Irish Universities titles won earlier in the season. More...

Our Boyd at Grantham Academy
You might have asked what has Josh Boyd been up to since he went off to the Table Tennis Academy in the UK. Well he's certainly been busy of late. More...

All Ireland Schools
St. Angelas College Cork continue their dominance at All Ireland Schools finals with another U19 title. While RBAI from Belfast take the U19 Boys More...


Double Gold for Sam the Man Sam Hanley picked up an individual Gold medal at the 6 Nations Primary School Championships when he beat fellow countryman Neal O'Flynn in the final. Ireland also won the team Gold. The girls were very unlucky to loose out on Gold on a countback but were still delighted to secure Silver and an excellent showing by young Irish players. Let's hope this is some indication towards better things to come at European Cadet level in the next couple of years.

Junior National Participation Levels From TTIreland
I don't know what the ITTA are basing their development projection on these days or even if they have any, I still crunch the numbers every now and then just to see where we are in regards to the amount of players participating. Did you know that there were 86 more junior placings in the 2002-2003 Season than this one? This and much more trivia Here...

Leinster take all three Interpros titles
The early news from Belfast is that Leinster took all three titles at the Senior Interpros. Leinster's international flavoured team included Na Ning (China) and Sabina Kazimagomedova (Russia) as well Lynch, Nolan, Murphy and Irish National Champion Fusco took the Senior Clare Moore Shield, Leinster ran into a quick 4-1 lead with only Na Lu of Ulster winning in the first 5 matches and the "unassailable" McGreevy loosing to Fusco. The Vets made up of Kevin Mackey, along with Pemberton and McCabe retained their title. This is the first time Leinster have achieved this remarkable trebel. Results...

Fitzgerald Crowned Champion
Brian Fitzgerald made a triumphant return to the Senior Irish Table Tennis scene when he defeated Irish No.1 Jason Sugrue in the quater-finals of the Irish National Championships after being 8-3 down in the fifth! Tara Fusco took the Senior Ladies Title and two youngsters from Connacht took the Ladies Doubles. Results... and on the Munster pages Corkman on top



Choice of table tennis rackets and correct grip
by Tihbar on Line
The choice of racket and grip is fundamental to good technique. Here is some useful information from leading equipment specialists Tibhar Artical Tibhar equipment can be purcased in Ireland from Celtic Table Tennis

Virtual Ping Pong
Video games have come along way since the dawning of "Pong." Here for the first time Joola have brought out a 3D player table tennis game for the PC with International competitions and tournaments. I haven't had a go yet but if you do send me a review for the website. The Joola Spin game is available for 26.50 Euros from Celtic Table Tennis.

Umpire Check List
With the increasing number of umpires on the scene Kiron Choudhury has updated the Umpire check list at Coaches Corner Update... and the role of the Umpire article...