Eastpoint versus the Rest :Leinster Junior Close ReporT

VERSUS
 

Eastpoint versus the rest at the Leinster Junior Close as there were 6 in the quarters of the cadets and five in the Junior Quarters.Fortunes were mixed as we only had two semi finalists in the cadets but three in the Juniors. Amazingly,although all are cadets, it was three different players in the Junior semis than the ones who made the Cadet semis!

In the cadets, it was a Munster Open hangover for Mark O'Flynn as he crashed out at the Quarter Finals stage deuce in the fifth to Sam Hanley. This surprise defeat came after being two nil up but Mark seemed out of sorts in the remaining three sets. He was unable to close out the game inspite of many chances and had  many unchareristic misses. In the other quarters Andrew Holohan had a titanic battle with Shane Foster. Shane had accounted for Karl McFaul in the Last 16 while Andy had gone straight to the quarters. The game was keenly fought with some excellent table tennis. They traded ends until they stood at 2-2. here Shane had his chances at 10-8 up to win through to his first semi final of the year but Andy hung on to win a nervous deuce 16-14. Gavin Maguire mean while played excellently to beat Ryan Flood in the last 16 but again lost a long five setter against Niall MCDonnell in a repeat of the Munster Open Clash.Nael O'Flynn meanwhile lost 3-1 to Daniel Keenan. Unfortunately Niall had to play Andrew which was needless to say another 5 setter, which saw Niall go tthrouigh to his second Cadet final in succession. In the final he had a good few chances before losing out deuce in the fifth. By this time I had lost count of the number of five setters.

Meanwhile in the Juniors it was the turn of Shane Foster to shine. His exciting 5 setter(inevitably) win over Daniel Keenan in the first round put him straight through to the quarters. There was many good rallies in the game and Shane did well in the fifth considering he was 2-0 up and Daniel came back well to level it at 2-2. But Shane played very positive in the fifth to win 11-4 in the that set. In the quarter finals Shane produced another superb performance to win 3-0 against Karl McKeever. In the other quarters Mark O'Flynn won yet another five setter against Chris Cluxton and Gavin beat Kevin Cregan to book his place in the semis. Andrew Holohan lost out to Stephen Keenan in the final quarter. that set up a Mark and Gavin Semi which Gavin won deuce in the fifth. Meanwhile Shane gave another good display against Stephen losing out 3-1 to the more experienced player. Gavin was delighted to be in his first Junior Final but he was unable to make any impression losing 3-0

With all our new Under 12s playing in the tournament it was good to see so many good displays by the older players but a bit disappointing that we did not win any of the events as Neal even lost the under 12s Final to Sam Hanley.Still after such a good January we can hardly complain about the performacnes in this Leinster tournament.

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