It was one of those rare days in sport:everything went according to the script. 2 brothers in 3 finals and they both won all the finals. Any other day you would have been left saying; Imagine if... 3 Eastpoint players in the semi final of the Cadets and there was an all Eastpoint final and it was Shane Foster who made it to his first final as well. On another day he would have lost deuce in the fifth. But this was not that any other day...
It was one of those rare days littered with great performances.. Mark was a double winner capturing the Cadet and the Junior boys titles. Neal won an exquisite Under 12 final against Sam Hanley that was full of breathtaking attacking table tennis. A match that made you wish it would never end. Shane Foster capped a day of fine wins with an appearance in his first Cadet final. To indicate the depth and quality of his potential Shane also reached the semi final of the Junior Boys. This was his second time in a row to reach this stage. Gavin Maguire who was in the Junior final last time out was unlucky enough to met the form players Mark and Shane on the day but he won the 5-8 play offs in both Cadets and Juniors. Shane won the third place play off in the Juniors beating Stephen Keenan and we even nearly won all the plates!! Conor Morgan won the Junior plate and Wael Ahmed won the under 19 plate.
In many ways it was Mark's day. He was superb in the cadets taking normally tough matches in his stride. He beat Gavin in the quarters in four sets and faced the only non Eastpoint player in the semi Ryan Flood. Again this went to four sets and although Ryan played well especially in the third and fourth sets Mark had a little too much firepower for him in the end .In the final he faced Shane and Mark won 3-0.
In the Juniors Mark had a tougher task but he played very well in the semi and final and showed that he is able to play against the stronger and more powerful players. Against Stephen Keenan in the semi Mark played superbly for the first two sets and it is to Stephen's credit that he never gave up and fought back to level the match at 2-2. In the fifth Stephen lead 8-5 before Mark came back and took the set 12-10 with some exciting attacking play. In the final against Shane Dolan Mark's improved temperament came in handy as he toughed it out in another five setter. He has lost the last 5 or 6 times in the fifth to Shane but when he got to the fifth this time he attacked positively and consistently to win the game.
The rest of the day belonged to Shane Foster who carved his way through three high ranked players in the rounds of the Cadets before losing to Mark in the final. He beat Daniel Keenan 3-1 in the quarters before blasting his way past Niall McDonnell in the semi 3-0. Then in the Juniors he beat Gavin Maguire 3-1 in the quarters and went down in the semi a very credible and fighting 3-1 to Shane Dolan. in the third place play off he beat Stephen Keenan 3-2 to claim third place. A pretty good day's work.
It was a day of good matches and Neal's performance in the 12s Final was another superb encounter. Gavin played well in both 5-8 place play offs to finish fifth.