Locals compete at Polish tournament

Only Alpha’s Alannah Stephenson got into the singles draw but the recently crowned Irish Under 19 champion was to progress no further than the opening round, going down to Denmark’s Analie Anderson, a qualifier 21-9 21-14. Anderson was herself to fall to Ya Ching HSU the No1 seed in three sets.

The brother and sister partnership of Ciaran and Sinead Chambers progressed through the qualifying stages in the mixed doubles beating Maciej Ociepa and Karolina Gajos 21-11 21-16 and overcame another Polish pair Kowenicki and Jaworek 21-19 21-13 to book their place in the main draw.

They found themselves one set in arrears against the Welsh pair Daniel Font and Sarah Thomas but fought their way back to level at one set all by taking the second set 21-13. There was little to separate the two pairs as the match entered the latter stages and the Alpha pair can count a little unlucky not to turn the 21-19 defeat around to a victory.

The Welsh pair’s challenge was brought to an abrupt end at the hands of Chi-Lin Wang and Ti Jung Wu who fell in the semi-finals.

After getting a bye into the 2nd round of the qualifying rounds Caroline Black and Stuart Lightbody were up against Ching Yao Lu and Yu Po Pai but were unable to make any further progress losing 21- 7 21-9. They went on to gain a vital place in the main draw and actually lost 21-18 in the third set in the final.

In the doubles Caroline Black and Sinead Chambers were to go out to eventual semi-finalists Joan Christiansen and Tilde Iversen 21-14 21-9 while Keady Smith and Alannah Stephenson pushed Sarina Kohlfurst and Katrin Neudolt all the way going down 21-19 21-17.

Alpha’s Tony Stephenson failed to make the main draw in the singles which would ordinarily have made him even more determined to feature in the Mens Doubles draw with his international partner Tony Murphy having also gone down to the same player in the qualifying round 21-15 21-15.

He had earlier knocked out Kian Anderson 21-16 21-15 but England’s Sam Dobson ranked almost two hundred places lower than him gained his revenge for a defeat in the Welsh International back in 2011 bringing Stephenson’s challenge to an end with the Lisburn player going down 21-19 21-16.

In the main draw of the mens doubles the Alpha pair were to lose out to Cheung Jen Chen and Chi-Lin Wang 21-10 21-7, the fact that this pair went on to take the title 21-14 21-16 may help to ease the disappointment.

Stuart Lightbody had made an encouraging start to getting out of the Qualifiers beating Mateusz Pietruszka (Poland) 21-7 21-9 and followed this up with a three set victory over Mateusz Biernacki 21-18 in the deciding set. But it was another Polish player Maciej Poulakowski who booked his place in the main draw 21-18 21-15 at the expence of the Lisburn player.

Andrew McKee had made it through a couple of matches against Mateusz Dubowski in thee sets 21-18 in the third and was a 21-7 21-19 winner over Marcin Ociepa but his challenge ended against Piotr Wasiluk with a very creditable 21-16 21-16.