Email us at

info@jtta.org.je

Site Page Hits

DirecTV HDTV

"DEUTSCHE BANK Channel Island Championships 1 -2 May "

The Finals of the Deutsche Bank Channel Islands 2009 Table Tennis Championships took place last weekend at the Geoff Reed Table Tennis Centre.

Singles & Doubles Finals

Proceedings opened on Friday night with the respective Island Champions meeting in their various Singles and Doubles encounters. Notwithstanding the Island rivalries, the matches were all, despite being hard fought, played in a very sporting manner, with some superb table tennis on show for the very large number of appreciative players and supporters.

Guernsey took the main honours with Gary Dodd and Alice Loveridge securing the Mens and Womens Channel Islands Singles Titles.

In a reversal of last year's Final outcome, Dodd overcame the challenge of Craig Gascoyne in a match of high class attacking and counter attacking table tennis. Despite losing the first set, Dodd was in inspired form, always seeming to be in control and having the upper hand in a match that certainly grabbed the attention of all those watching, Dood eventually running out a worthy 4-2 winner.

As anticipated, the extremely talented Loveridge took the Womens Title 4-1 against the more experienced Kay Lefebvre. The latter's resolute defensive game did, however, cause her younger opponent some problems, the 4-1 scoreline arguably not doing justice to the efforts and the never say die attitude of Lefebvre.

Guernsey enjoyed much success during Friday night's play, taking 13 of the 19 Titles to be decided. Loveridge took no fewer than 4 titles in total, including the Under 18s Girls and Under 15 Girls Singles, on each occasion proving too strong for Jersey's Kelsey Le Maistre. The latter will, however, have certainly benefited from matches against her much more illustrious opponent.

Jersey's main successes came in the Doubles events, with Gascoyne and Lefebvre taking the Mixed Doubles, the former also teaming up with Dave Cronin as they beat the very strong pairing of Dodd and Phil Ogier in the Mens Doubles 4-3. Not to be outdone, Lefebvre and Daisy Duke also took the Womens Doubles, 4-3 against the young combination of Loverdige and Kate Stubbington. Last but not least, the duo of Eugene Ellis and the unflappable Bobby Vincent retained their Veterans Doubles Title 4-2 against their old rivals Mark Pipet and Phil Hunkin.

Singles Finals of note included Pipet's thrilling 4-3 victory over Ellis in the Over 50s Final, Pipet taking the deciding set 11-9. At the other end of the scale, the Under 13 and Under 11 Open Singles both produced some thrilling action from 4 stars of the future. Jersey's popular Hugo Tupper triumphed in the former event 4-1 over Joshau Stacey, whilst in the Under 11s Final Jersey champion, Philip Quinn was beaten, in straight albeit very tight sets, by the very impressive Alderney based Alex Finding.

Team events

Saturday witnessed the 11 strongly contested Team matches, with the age of participants ranging from 8 to 77 years ! Once again, there was much high-class table tennis on display and drama too for the large audience.

The highlight was the Mens Green Trophy played on the Saturday evening, Guernsey retaining the Trophy in a very tense affair, by the closet of margins 6-4. This was despite a Man of the Match performance from Craig Gascoyne who played superbly to remain unbeaten, his victories including a 3-0 success against the newly crowned CI. Champion, Gary Dodd. Eugene Ellis also enjoyed success against Phil Ogier, but that was that as far as Jersey were concerned. Guernsey were in ecstatic mood following the match. Much credit must go to debutant, Oliver Langlois, who demonstrated his fine attacking game and showed great maturity, claiming the scalps of Dave Cronin and Eugene Ellis. Langlois will surely be a fixture in the Guernsey side for many years to come.

Guernsey also took the Womens Margaret Trophy, the margin of victory again being 6-4. The match witnessed one of the best victories of Kay Lefebvre's long career as she overcame the vastly talented Alice Loveridge, Lefebvre taking the deciding fifth set 11-7. Guernsey stalwart, Dawn Morgan starred, however, Morgan remaining unbeaten, her wins including a 3-2 success, having been 2-0 down, against Lefebvre in the deciding match. Both players gave their all and richly deserved the vociferous support both during and after their splendid encounter.

Jersey enjoyed their two Team successes in the Over 40s and Over 50s encounters. In the former, Bruce Gallichan and the unflappable Bobby Vincent teamed up with Tom Quinn, Clive Hansford joining forces with the tiring Gallichan and Vincent in the latter event.

Most encouragingly, matches at Junior level were of an amazingly high standard, a testament to the work being put into the development of the game at Junior level by both Islands. This was highlighted in the Under 18 Boys and Girls matches, plus the Under 15 and Under 11s Trophies. In the Under 18 Boys Team event, Max Tupper enjoyed a straight sets victory over Oliver Langlois, It was also great to see “new” names performing so well and demonstrating huge improvement, a comment applying to Tom Marsay of Jersey and Guernsey's Liam Robillard. Likewise Philip Quinn, who was unbeaten in the Under 11s event helping his side to a 5-5 draw.

The Team matches proved to be much tighter affairs than in previous years. This was emphasized by the result of the overall Aggregate Trophy. As expected, Guernsey took the Trophy but the 63-47 result was considerably closer than the emphatic 88-22 scoreline of 12 months ago.

Roll on the 2010 Channel Island Championships in Guernsey.