News
Stiga Ulster Junior Open Preview
11 November 2010
Stiga Ulster Junior Open Preview
The Stiga Ulster Junior Open, one of Ireland’s biggest junior tournaments, returns this year with a new format and will be run over two days at the Shankill Leisure Centre on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th November. Over 130 players from all four corners of Ireland will compete at this major tournament and it promises to be a highly competitive and enjoyable weekend.
In the juniors, Ulster players Ashley Robinson and Ashley Givan will be looking to retain their titles which they won last year at this event. Both have had a fantastic season so far with both players excelling for Ireland recently at the Junior British League. Robinson was particularly impressive defeating several of the top 10 junior boys in England. Several players will be hoping to thwart Robinson’s title hopes with Shi Zhao Li from Leinster and Declan O’Brien from Munster in good form so far this season. Fellow Ulster players Stephen Slater and Neil Irwin will also be putting in a strong challenge. In the girls section, current Irish junior girls number 1 Givan is dominant at this level and it will take a titanic effort from someone to dethrone Givan from this title. Connaught’s Sarah Timlin and Munster’s Edel O’Reilly and Deirdre Murphy will more than likely feature in the latter stages of this event and hope to spring a surprise. O’Reilly has improved rapidly recently and has put in extremely good results at the European Youth Championships and Junior British League and will be hoping to draw experience from these performances.
At Cadet Boys level, Irish number 1, Ryan Farrell, will be looking to retain his title from last year, however he will have strong challenges from his fellow Leinster players of Shi Zhao Li, Kevin Hutchinson, Conor Mullally and Ciaran Kelly.
In the Cadet girls, Meadhbh Slatterly is currently number 1 cadet and will be looking for a repeat of her Irish Junior Classification heroics where she beat Emma Ludlow in the final. This is a strong age group with many players in contention. Ludlow, and the McGlone sisters Katie and Elayna will be hoping to challenge Slatterly whilst Hannah Lynch Dawson, Amy Lou Hayes and Laura Finn could spring a surprise on the day and challenge for honours.
Ryan McConkey has come of age recently and currently sits proudly as Irish number 1 in the U’12 boys. He will no doubt be made to work hard to keep this position by Connaught’s Martin Edward Ditchburn, Leinster's Conor Gallagher and Munster’s Karl Walsh. A dark horse in this event may very well be Belfast’s Zak Wilson who, on his day, can compete with the top players at this age group.
The U’12 girls will likely be a battle between current number 1 Rebecca Finn, and Katie and Elayna McGlone. However, Munster’s Valentina Puotkalyte will be hoping to make an impact at this event.
There will also be separate U’10 events for boys and girls, so an action packed weekend is guaranteed.
