McVeigh through to the Quarter Finals!

Day 3 of the Para Thailand International seen Andrew Moorcroft & Niall McVeigh start their doubles campaign in the SS6 classification in group C and Niall McVeigh play his round of last 16 in the Men's Singles SS6.

After topping group E with 3 wins Niall McVeigh progressed to the knock out stages of the tournament were he would face Sun Jon Lie from the Netherlands. Having a winning record against the Dutch player Niall went into the match confident and this proved the case within him racing to a 14-10 lead. The young Dutch player started to grow into the match and reduce the lead to 16-14 then to 18-16, but Niall's experience paid off in the later stages of the game taking it 21-16. The second game had a similar start to the first, again with Niall racing to a 14-7 lead. Some unforced error's from Niall and a few good points from Lie brought the game close with McVeigh just staying in the lead 15-14. Again the 2x World Champions experience was evident in the later stages of the game and went onto take it 21-16 and progress to the Quarter finals where he will play Hong Kong's Chun Yim Wong.

 Earlier in the day Niall & andrew Moorcroft started their SS6 Doubles campaign in Group C. Their first match of the day was against the Peru/ Malaysian pairing of Hector Tunque & Didin Taresoh (2015 World singles champion). It was a very tight start to the game with Niall 7 andrew having a slight advantage 11-10 at the interval. The boys then raced into 19-15 lead, however Hector & Taresoh had a run of 5 points with some fantastic SS6 doubles play. Niall & Andrew played a great point to level it at 20-20 before losing a quick point making it 21-20 before again bringing it back to 21-21 but the Peru/Malaysian pair proved strong in the final few points and took the set 23-21. The second set Andrew & Niall started off very strongly, leading 11-8 at the interval then raced to a 16-9 lead. A mixture of errors from the Irish pair and some good points from their opponents brought the game to 16-15 but the boys re-focused and played some solid points to take the set 21-16. The 3rd set was extremely close with only 1-2 points ever between the pairs up to 17-17. The Peru/Malysian pair then reeled of 3 points in a row to take them to  match point, but as ever with the fighting spirit of Andrew & Niall they managed to level the game at 20-20. Unfortunately their effort came up just short as their opponents took the next 2 points and the match 22-20. It was an excellent match of high quality lasting a staggering 51 minutes! 

Their second Group game of the day was against the 3rd Seed Indian paring of Mark Dharmai & Raja Magotra. After their physical opening doubles match, the start of their second match proved to be a cagey affair, with the score at  8-8 before the Indian pair took the next 3 points to lead 11-8 at the interval. The experienced Indian pair pushed hard after the interval and took a 16-10 lead, then took the set 21-17. The second set followed a similar story to the first set with the game very even between both pairs up to 13-12 in favour of the Indians. Unfortunately the toll of their first round match came into the effect and the boys could not maintain their playing level and the Indians went on to take the set and match 21-13

Some great matches today from the Irish players and with Niall progressing to the Quarter finals of the Singles. Best of Luck tomorrow!

For results and playing schedule follow this link- http://bwf.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/player.aspx?id=7F92D325-FDA6-4122-A457-C0034B9EE12E&player=7...