Fifth place finish for North East squad at Youth Games

The squad were once again grateful to Geoffrey McKillop of ‘The Hip Chip’ Bushmills for sponsoring the team.

The mission got off to a flying start when the Coleraine team beat the other North East squad from Antrim 7-0. Next up were Belfast when the team fell to a disappointing 5-2 defeat.

Only the two most experienced squad members managed to win, with Andrew Lynch taking the boys’ singles and Ronan Gaile winning the mixed along with Richella Mullan. For all of the girls this was a whole new experience having lost all of last year’s girls either through age or to the Ulster Squad.

In the afternoon matches, however, the squad performed well against a strong Southern side and were unlucky to lose 4-3. Ronan Gaile won the boys’ singles and Johnny Crowe and Thomas Henry won first boys’ doubles, while Angus Johnston and George McKeag took the second boys’ doubles.

Unfortunately the Southern squad had arguably the strongest girls in the competition. The youngest member of the Coleraine team, Marie Richmond lost the girls’ singles but put up a spirited performance against Ulster Under-13 player Kerri Scott.

Eva Lennox and Sophie Sterne narrowly missed pulling off the win of the day going down 21-19 to the strong pairing of Alex Scott and Caitlin Steele.

In the final match Coleraine beat South East Ards 4-3 winning the boys’ singles, both girls’ doubles and the mixed to finish in fifth position overall. Ronan Gaile remained undefeated in all four of his matches.

Team captain, Johnny Crowe, collected the medals on behalf of the team. For some of the boys this was their final year in Youth Games but the girls can all look forward to doing it all again next year.