European Senior Championships 2013: Team Summary and Individual Draws
07 October 2013
Ireland produced some excellent performances over the weekend at the European Senior Championships. Following a disappoint start on Friday, the team really kicked into gear on Saturday and Sunday to pull some good wins out of the bag. It could have been so different though, with two matches on Friday that were very close affairs.
Friday Summary
First up was Norway, and Ireland's Number One Paul McCreery showed he is right in form for this event claiming two wins over both Lars and Espen Ronneberg. McCreery is World Ranked 579 going in to the tournament and will be particularly pleased with his win over Espen Ronneberg who is WR 330. Unfortunately for the Irish, Maguire and Robinson were unable to add to McCreery's tally as the team fell to a 3:2 loss.
Next up was Lithuania. A supreme battling performance by McCreery in the first match against Domeika set the tone, he was just on the wrong end of a 3:2 loss(12-14 12-14 12-10 13-11 9-11). Next in to the fray was Maguire and it was a similar story - he was eagerly awaiting this match up with Mikutis who trains in the same centre as him in Germany. Mikutis is 500 places above Maguire in the World Rankings, but this was not evident as Maguire raced in to a two set lead. Mikutis battled back and once again it was hard luck for the Irish as he claimed a 3:2 defeat to secure the win and bragging rights over his training partner. Alredas Udra closed out the match to give Lithuania a 3:0 victory.
The final match on Friday evening saw Ireland take on Estonia. Estonia’s Smirnov looked to be the class act on show and claimed two wins over McCreery and Maguire. Robinson stepped up with his first win of the tournament, over Libene – this was a good win by Ashley as his opponent is ranked 200 places above him in the World Ranking list. McCreery claimed a win also against another higher ranked opponent in Vainulla(WR:426) to continue his impressive form in Vienna. This set up a decider for Maguire against Vainulla. Again Maguire battled impressively, pushing his opponent all the way and clawing back from a two set deficit to level at 2:2. He had chances to claim a big scalp but yet again was unlucky to lose the final game 11:9, which confirmed the win for Estonia and left the Irish disappointed – the team definitely felt that there were chances for the win and would have to regroup overnight before tests against Cyprus and Kosovo.
Saturday Summary
Maguire registered his first win at the event with a majorly impressive performance over Cypriot No.1 Marios Yiangou(WR: 386). McCreery followed up with a win over Yaingos Yiangou leaving Ireland on the verge of their first match win. Robinson stepped up to the plate and duly delivered in a thrilling encounter against Esfathiou and Ireland had registerd their first win by a 3:0 scoreline.
The final game in Group B was against Kosovo and this time Ireland were heavy favourites. The team managed this pressure well and there were no slip ups as all three players recorded victories to claim the 2nd win in a row and seal 4th position in Group B.
The margins at this level are so small – Estonia claimed the group victory – Ireland had lost out to this team by such a narrow scoreline on Friday and may well look to this match as one that got away.
Sunday Summary
In to the final day of team play and Ireland faced two matches to decide the final position in the group event. First up was Finland – McCreery again the in-form player claiming a win over Soine. Finland claimed two straight sets victories before McCreery again had a marathon tussle with Miika O’Connor, with the Finn claiming a 5th set victory to seal the match for Finland.
Last up for Ireland was a test against Latvia. This time the team were determined to finish off the event with a win. They dropped the first match but bounced back strongly, with McCreery claiming two wins again and Robinson also adding to the tally as Ireland registered a 3:1 victory to close out the Team Event.
Draws – Singles
Group 15
Maguire is drawn against Italian, French and Belgian opposition and will enjoy the challenge of facing off against some of Europe’s top level players. He will be hoping to replicate the big win against his Cypriot opponent Yiangou here.
Group 32
Ireland’s Number One McCreery has a five man group, with Slovakian and Slovenian opposition ranked in the top 200 the top seeds. He will relish a test against England’s Sam Walker in what will be a real battle between two evenly matched players and is the first match in the group. McCreery will have his eye on claiming some scalps to finish off what has been an impressive tournament that should boost his World Ranking position.
McCreery partners with Maguire in the Doubles where they face Spanish, Austrian and a Hungary/Slovenian pair.
Group 09
Ashley Robinson has a tough draw as you would expect at this level. Top seed in group 9 is Turkeys’ Ahmet Li who is WR: 109. He also faces Espen Ronneberg and will certainly look to Ronneberg’s conquerer in the Team Event McCreery for guidance here.
Robinson partners with Wales’ Dan O’Connell in the Doubles.
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