CI Championships 2019

Jersey came away with more individual CI table tennis titles than Guernsey for the first time since 2015 when action concluded on Friday evening at the Geoff Reed table tennis centre in Jersey. Jersey took 13 of the 20 titles on offer, however the Sarnians managed to walk away with 3 of the 5 flagship trophies on the night.

Prolific CI title winner Dawn Morgan was responsible for all 3 of these crowns as she walked away with the Women’s Singles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles crowns as well as adding a 4th title on the night in the Women’s Veterans Singles.

Her victories in the main blue riband events were all fairly comfortable. She breezed past Irene Bree in straight sets to clinch her 18th CI Women’s Singles title and alongside Kay Chivers romped to a 4-0 win over Bree and Kay Lefebvre, also her 18th title in this category and 6th alongside Chivers.            Dawn Morgan and Josh Stacey claimed the Mixed Doubles title

The mixed doubles crown was clinched alongside Joshua Stacey where the duo defeated Lefebvre and Tyler Gosselin in 6 sets. This too was her 18th title in this category.

The Women’s Veterans clash against Lefebvre however was an extremely tough match and Morgan needed to be at her best to overturn a 3-0 deficit before winning 11-9 in the 7th and deciding leg.

There was disappointment in the 2 x blue riband men’s events as Jersey took both of the titles. Lawrence Stacey and twin Josh lost out in a tight 6 set Men’s Doubles clash to Mariusz Cieminski and Gosselin, whilst Cieminski battled past Lawrence by the same score in the Men’s Singles. Stacey trailed 3-0 and did well to battle back to 3-2 before going down in the 6th. He will rue missed chances, particularly the 3rd end when he held a few game points.

Phil Ogier has been another regular CI title winner and he added another Veterans Open Doubles crown to his collection alongside Jez Powell. The duo won their 6th consecutive title at this level when they overcame Eugene Ellis and Mario Martinka in straight sets. He had no answer to Ellis in the Veteran’s Open Singles on this occasion as Ellis powered through 4-1 in an impressive display of attacking table tennis.

The penultimate title won by Guernsey was in the Under 18 Boys singles as Ben Foss battled past Leon Pierre over 6 sets. Foss was unable to add to his tally on the night though, as he lost out to Pierre 4-1 in the Under 21 Open Singles and Pierre was again his nemesis in the Under 18 Open Doubles, where a 4-1 defeat was inflicted alongside Matthew Casey by Pierre and Alfie Sutherland.

The 7th and final title claimed by Guernsey was by Paul Hainsworth in the Restricted Open Singles. The tournament is open to players aged between 21 and 40 with the caveat that entrants have not played in the Green trophy Inter-Insular clash within the past 2 years. Since inception of the CI trophy back in 2016, it has been won by a player that had actually played in the Green event the same year. Olly Langlois claimed it in 2016, whilst Cieminski and Gregorz Frankowski each overcame Hainsworth in the previous 2 years. The trend was broken this year as Hainsworth was only a reserve for the Green. He defeated Jersey’s own Green reserve and Gibraltar 2019 Island Games team member Jack Mills 4-0 to clinch the title.

Keith Opie came the closest to making it 8 titles for the visitors as he narrowly lost out 4-3 to JTTA president Paul Routier in the Over 70’s Open Singles final.