News & Fixtures

 

UCD extended their record winning streak in table tennis as they recorded a 13th mens team title in a row at the Intervarsity Championships at the Mardyke in Cork, 25/26 February, also retaining the title of the longest current Varsity wining streak by any UCD team.

This streak started in UCC at the Intervarsity Championships in 2000, and has now been retained through 2 further visits to UCC Mardyke.

The Mens Team Championship final for the Hubert Wine Cup, first played for in 1949, saw a familiar face off between 12 time defending champions UCD and their opponents of 2011 and 2010, CIT. College had come through to the final with wins over DIT and Queens, followed by a semi final match-up against a strong UCC team. Meanwhile, CIT had accounted for UCC, Griffith and Trinity followed by victory against Queens in the semi finals. Both teams were missing some key players, and it was CIT who got off to the better start, at one stage leading 3-2, and with UCD trailing 0-2 in sets in the 2 matches on the table it looked like an upset was on the cards. These matches ebbed and flowed, and it became clear that the title would be decided in how these matches went. UCD pegged both matches back to 2-2, and in critical exchanges, especially between the respective #1 players, Gavin Maguire (UCD) and Ian Brown (CIT), both points fell to UCD, and as the singles matches finished it was College who held the advantage at 7-5 going into the 3 doubles. All 3 doubles went to the Belfield side, and it was UCD who took the title 10-5, Varsity Champions for the 13th year in a row.

  

The Ladies team event was an edgy affair. UCC held the initial advantage, with a 3-0 lead due to a late withdrawal leaving UCD one lady short. This was retrieved quickly by UCD, with the first 3 singles going to UCD, and tying the score at 3-3. UCD took a 2-1 advantage in the next round of singles, and lead the match 5-4, but UCC were not to be outdone and came back strong to claim the doubles match and set up a deciding doubles rubber. The match went all the way to a 5th set, where UCD just edged out a small advantage at 8-8 in the 5th, taking the 2 points for a 10-8 lead and, making no mistake on their first Championship point, took the tie 3-2 and the overall match 6-5, winning the Irish ladies title for the 4th year in a row.

In the Mens singles event, the ties went largely as seeded, with #1 seed Maguire facing James Herley (CIT) in the first semi final, while #2 seed Brown faced UCD #2 Jack Stapleton. Stapleton had defied his 5th seeding with a win over UCC’s Alex Cooney, honours even for the weekend as Cooney had beaten Stapleton in the team event. 3-0 scorelines in both semi final matches gave us a 1v2 Championship Final, with Maguire in no mood to have a repeat of the previous days close team match, running out a 3-0 winner, and taking the Mens Singles title for College for the 3rd year in a row.

The Ladies singles, a large round robin, also largely followed form, as other results made it a straight shootout between UCD #1 Sarah Timlin and Huizhuang Xie, UCC #1. A tight match, as it was in the team event the previous day, with both players competing in their first Intervarsities, saw Timlin take the ladies singles title, while UCD #2 Emma-Jane Helen finished in 4th position.