Seven of the nine Ulster Counties contested the Ulster Inter-Counties, with only Cavan and former table tennis powerhouse Fermanagh failing to field a team. Three counties entered two teams, namely County Antrim, County Armagh and County Down.
After the group stages, six county teams progressed to the main event to contest the C. McBride Shield, namely top seeds Antrim 1, Antrim 2, County Monaghan, County Armagh 1, County Armagh 2 and County Tyrone. Two teams bowed out at the quarter-final stage, with Antrim 2 falling to County Monaghan and Armagh 2 losing out to Tyrone.
Monaghan’s brave and unexpected run came to an abrupt end at the hands of top seeds Antrim 1, but despite the loss, each match proved very competitive indeed. Tyrone somewhat unexpectedly defeated the second seeds Armagh 1 to set up a repeat of the 2022 final in which Tyrone lost 4 matches to 3, despite holding a couple of championship points.
This final turned out to equally close. Tom Irwin recorded an excellent 3-2 win over Christopher Allsop 11-7, 11-4, 4-11, 7-11, 11-6. Bjorn Sandstorm took the first Over 40s match for Antrim, defeating Tyrone’s David Irwin 11-8, 11-7, 11-4. Tyrone retook the lead by winning the Over 60s match with the evergreen Des Flannigan defeating Breandan O’Fiaich 11-7, 11-6, 13-11. Antrim’s Alex Lo restored parity with a 11-5, 7-11, 14-12, 11-3 win over Tyrone’s Daniel Irwin. The battle of the captains saw Mark McAllister coming from behind to defeat Antrim’s Chris White 5-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-3.
Antrim had to win both doubles to retain their title: Chris White and Bjorn Sandstorm made the perfect start, defeating Mark McAllister and Daniel Irwin 11-3, 11-1, 12-10.
Alex Lo and Breandan O’Fiaich took the first game of the second doubles 11-5 to put Antrim in front briefly, but the strong Tyrone pairing of Des Flannigan and Tom Irwin took the next three tightly contested games 11-9, 13-11, 11-7 to record a historic win for the County.
The C. McBride Shield winners: Co. Tyrone
L – R David Irwin, Daniel Irwin, Des Flanagan, Mark McAllister, Tom Irwin, Anthony White
Runners up: Co. Antrim 1
L-R Chris White, Christopher Allsop, Alex Lo, Bjorn Sandstorm, Breandan O’Fiaich
The plate competition for the Jimmy O’Hara Shield was won by County Donegal who recorded an excellent win over the Down 1 team.
County Donegal plate winners
L-R Bert McCloy, Oksana Pavlova, Paul Gallagher, Yuri Pavlov, Pat McCloughlin
It was an honour to have the Mayor of Mid and East Antrim Council, Jackson Minford, attend the Inter-Counties Championship and hit a few balls with the County Antrim 2 team players as well as pose with some of the team
L-R Mark Millar, Francis Shirley, Stephen Baillie, Mayor Jackson Minford, Oliver McQuillan, Peitr Jackowitz
The host club thanked Ballymena Academy for the continued use of their premises, tournament referees Norman McBride and Jimmy Sterling and TTI umpire Ala Al Janabi for their hard work during the tournament. The players were also thanked for making the event a real success.
