Email us at

info@jtta.org.je

Site Page Hits

DirecTV HDTV

Craig Gascoyne, Nicola Duke and Luke Walker have just returned after competing in two Open Table Tennis Grand Prix tournaments in the UK with some very impressive results.

" Gascoyne and Duke stop Herts beating!!"

Gascoyne wins Men's Band 1 title in North Herts.

Duke wins Women's Band 3 title in North Herts.

Walker beats 19th seed in group stage of Men's Open in Cardiff.

Gascoyne and Duke played in the North Hertfordshire Open on 27/28 Feb 2010 and had fantastic success with both bringing home National titles.

Gascoyne played in Band 1 having been installed as the No. 1 seed and despite a slightly shaky start in the group stage he gradually got used to the conditions and was soon on a roll. All three opponents in his group were duly dispatched including a good recovery against Jimmy Walsh form Middlesex after having been 2--0 down. Gascoyne finally took this match against the fifth seed 4/11, 5/11, 11/4, 11/5, 11/5.

Gascoyne eventually found himself in the semi-final against the German, Zoltan Hosszu. There were some brilliant loop to loop exchanges and despite dropping the first game 7/11, Gascoyne powered back with increased speed and spin to take the next three games and the match 11/7, 11/9, 11/7.

The final was as predicted with Gascoyne facing the No.2 seed Ashley Stokes from Middlesex. This ended up being the Jersey player's performance of the day as he sent down a barrage of backhand re-loops off the bounce and forehand smashes to overpower his opponent 11/9, 13/11, 7/11, 11/5. This was Gascoyne's 5th Band 1 National Title of his illustrious career.

Nicola Duke was meanwhile up against stiff opposition in the Women's Band 3 round robin tournament. The first of three local Hertfordshire players, Natasha Walsh, found Duke in dominant mood as the Jersey player breezed past her opponent 11/4, 11/7, 11/7. The second, Karen Wrigley suffered a similar fate succumbing to Duke's aggressive topspins 11/4, 11/8, 11/3. Polish born Sylwia Drozd suffered a similar fate as Duke smashed her way to another 3--0 victory, The final match saw the jersey player against the Hertys No.1 ranked woman, Claire Rogers. This proved to be a very tactical match but as it wore on the relentless and accurate attack of Duke's shots won the important points and she took the Band 3 National title 12/10, 12/10, 11/5. The title performance by Duke was even more impressive as all matches were won without dropping a single game.

17 year old Victoria College student Luke Walker was meanwhile competing at the other Grand Prix Open tournament of the weekend at Cardiff.

Playing in the full four tournament disciplines Walker went through as runner up in his group in Band 5. His two excellent wins against tournament seeded Simon Oyler [No. 33] and Jack Collins [No. 48] almost faded into insignificance as he almost took out Matt Lancet [No.26] but a few edges robbed him at the death 10/12, 12/10, 11/9, 9/11, 11/13.

In the first of the knock out rounds he had a gritty win against Alex Prosser but finally lost to the eventual winner of Band 5 Alan Monks who used to be the Ireland No.1 and is now one of the Welsh coaches!!

Band 4 was a step up in standard but Walker was very unlucky to miss out on the knockout stages with two very close 3--2 group losses after having initially succumbed to the talented 23rd seed Scott Cundy 7/11, 8/11, 11/9, 5/11.

Walker re-focused and got through his tough group in the Men's Singles with some excellent attacking shots and just missed out on an incredible win against the 10th seed Mark Jackson 4/11, 11/5, 6/11, 11/5, 6/11. Going through as group runner up he had his best win against the No.19 seed for the tournament Andrew Hodge who had won Band 3 the day before!! Walker played  a composed attacking game and despite being pegged back to two games all kept his attacking game together to seal a truly fantastic and on paper totally unexpected victory 5/11, 11/9, 11/9, 6/11, 11/9. Welsh Men's No.8 Ceri James finally halted Walker's progress 3-0 in the 2nd round of knockout.

The Under 21 Men's Singles were full of top UK players and it was no disgrace for Walker to exit at the group stage.

 " I was really pleased with my performance," said Gascoyne, " I still love training and competing hard. With Nicola's national title as well plus Luke's great play in Cardiff it has been a superb couple of days for Jersey Table Tennis."