The Coming of Age tournament as old heads on young shoulder gets possible

Four Under 15s in the quarter finals of an Irish Under 17 tournament and two of them in the semis. It was a great final tournament of the season.

Andy won a great match with Tom McDonagh in the last 32. He had nerves of steel at 20-19 down in the third and played a perfect short serve and fierce topspin at 20-20 to take the advantage and a superb return to clinch the match.

If this was holding your nerve, then the last 16 was a growing maturity. Having dropped the fist set of a nervy match to Josh Boyd, Andy came storming back to win 21-11,21-8 in the other two sets.

A very satisfying day was capped off by a gritty performance in the quarter finals where he recovered from a shaky first set against Colin Byrne to deliver a cracking 21-19 in the second and be unlucky not to bring the match to three.

Sean and Brian served up another feast of table tennis in their last 16 match which Sean shaded 17 in the third but shows how strong both of them can be. Sean had another three sets in the previous when he just about overcame Andrew Blanch who was not far away from winning this match either.

Sean showed a new maturity in his approach and was unlucky in his encounter in the quarters with Sean Brady not to have extended it to three sets after a spirited second set.

Conor is a super player but this was not his day and yet he still managed to get to the semis. His maturity shone through in the way he scrapped for the matches where he would normally cruise. He lost out to Colin in the semis eventually still playing awesome topspin even if not as sprightly as usual.

Overall it was a coming of age day for all the nearly grown-up juniors