On Wednesday 28th January, RBAI had two teams that took part in the Ulster Table Tennis Team Championships. The competition saw a record turnout this year, with 312 players across 52 teams competing for the prestigious opportunity to represent Ulster at the All-Ireland Table Tennis Finals in Dublin this April. RBAI were represented by 3 teams in the Under 13, 15 and 19 competitions.
Our Under 13 team consisted of Joey Sheppard, Theo Chambers, Ben Gibson, Wilfie Riley, Hugo Ford, Leo Stewart and Zachary Graham. The boys qualified from their group to play in the Plate competition and made it the final where they were narrowly beat 5-4 by Royal and Priory School. The boys played some exceptional Table Tennis to reach the final in their first tournament representing the school.
Our Under 15 team consisted of, James Vallelly, Seth Gibson, Paul Hollway, Conor Brown, Toby Allen, Tom McMurray and Nico Koza. Again, qualified from their group to play in the Plate competition and made it the final. This was a match of tight games the team ran out 5-1 winn2rs to become Ulster Team Plate Champions.
Our Under 19 team consisted of Aaditya Singh, Christopher Allsop, Ollie Grant, Tsai Rainey, Jack Mayne and Jacob Smyth. The boys topped their group and qualified for the main draw. The team made the final playing some exception table tennis to beat Sullivan Upper in the semifinal to set up a final against Friends School. After the singles the team where 4-2 down meaning they had to win all the remaining singles games to win. The match went down to the final doubles game after getting the match back to 4-4. Unfortunately, the team could not pull of the great escape losing the final doubles game and ended up as runners up for the tournament.
Well done to all those who took part in the Championship.
