British League Round 2
Post date: Dec 08, 2019 3:35:49 PM
Ravenscroft Senior British National League Report Weekend 2 2019/20 Season
The Ravenscroft-backed Guernsey Table Tennis sides were in the UK this weekend contesting the second round of fixtures from the Senior British League.
With both sides in action at the Halton Table Tennis club in Widnes, it was the Island’s leading side that excelled with 3 wins from their 4 matches. Competing in the National A-1 Division, the team of Lawrence Stacey, Joshua Stacey, Ben Foss and Alex Robinson have now moved up into 3rd spot in the 8 strong table.
The first encounter of the weekend was against 4th placed side Halton TTC I and the Sarnian side started excellently due to their strong 6-3 victory. Lawrence got his side off to the perfect start courtesy of singles wins over Harry Watson in straight sets and Jack Stockdale in 4 sets. Foss also had an unbeaten start due to his 4 set wins over Watson and David Griffith. The duo made sure of the win due to their doubles triumph over Stockdale and Watson in straight sets. Robinson added a further straight sets win against Griffith in the final match of the fixture. The afternoon fixture on Saturday was against 7th placed side Draycott II and a narrow 5-4 victory was achieved. This was a real team effort as all Guernsey players each won 1 singles match. Lawrence earned a solid 4 set win over former England International Senior Women’s player Emma Vickers, whilst twin Josh also defeated her in 5 sets. Foss beat Adam Feargrieve in 4 sets, whilst Robinson earned a nice 4 set win over Jody Bevington. It came down to the doubles rubber and it was the combination of Foss and Robinson that took the honours due to a straight sets win over Bevington and Rhys Davies.
Steve Ozanne made his British League debut
The first match on Sunday saw a tight 5-4 defeat to 2nd placed side St Marys Hull 1. It was a similar story to the Draycott encounter in that each player won 1 match, however on this occasion the 100% doubles record for the weekend was lost as Foss and Lawrence were beaten in 4 sets by Connor Whitehead and Michael Fraser. Josh earned a strong straight sets win over England 109 Fraser, whilst Lawrence came back from 2-0 down to beat the same player in 5 sets. Foss and Robinson each picked up wins against the St Marys Hull number 4 player Ehsan Jawadi.
The final match of the weekend saw an emphatic 8-1 win against Cardiff City TTC I, who are currently bottom of the Division. The only match dropped was by Josh, who was beaten in 4 sets by Benedict Watson in the opening rubber of the tie. The doubles was won by Foss and Robinson over Watson and Rhys Hetherton in straight sets.
Ravenscroft II had a much tougher weekend of action in National C1 and failed to record victories in any of their matches.
Despite the defeats, there were still some good wins and performances from each player, namely Ryan Bichard, Ryan Gilson, Jamie Ferbrache and Senior British League debutant Steve Ozanne. Bichard saved his best for the final match of the weekend as he earned singles wins against both players from 4th placed side Halton TTC 3 as well as winning the doubles rubber alongside Ryan Gilson.
Gilson himself won two singles matches over the weekend and his best was a 5 set win over Adam Gittings. Ozanne made a solid SBL debut and he won 2 of his matches over the weekend. In addition to these wins he also narrowly lost 3 other matches over the full 5 set distance. Ferbrache also added a singles win over the course of the weekend.
Meanwhile the leading CI player Garry Dodd competed superbly for his Nottingham Sycamore side this weekend in the strong Championship Division. Playing at the number 1 spot, he won 7 of his 8 singles matches, losing only in 4 sets to England number 22 James Hobson. Included in his wins were a number of Top 50 English players including Liam McTiernan, Naphat Boonyaprapa and Graeme Barella.