Island Championships Day 1 Roundup

Stacey reached the final last year where he was beaten by Garry Dodd, who is now based in Sheffield, whilst this will be a maiden Men's Singles final for 17 year old Foss, who recently returned to the tables, having missed a large chunk due to injury.

The tournament saw all 8 seeded players make their way to the Quarter finals, however there were some notable encounters that took place prior to this stage. 3rd Division player Mick Ingrouille earned an excellent 7 set win over 2nd Division player Peter Vivian in the Last 32 before exiting to Joshua Stacey in the next round, whilst 7th seed Jez Powell emerged through a high quality Last 32 tussle with 1st Division player Andy Gill in 7 sets, having trailed 5-2 in the deciding end. The other exciting Last 32 clash came between Division 2 Lions E team-mates, Caden Brouard and Jonah Ingrouille. It was Brouard who edged through this encounter between the youngsters, 11-8 in the decider, before losing to Foss 4-0 in the Last 16.

              Ben Foss reached his first Men's final

The Last 16 clashes mainly failed to light up as 7 of them were won 4-0. The exception however was the encounter between Division 1 juniors Dan Collenette and Matthew Casey. 6th seed Collenette was always 1 game ahead and held his nerve strongly in the deciding 7th end of their encounter and took it 11-3.

The Quarter finals saw some high quality table tennis played across each encounter. Lawrence may have defeated Collenette in 5 games, but it was a tough battle which saw the first 3 ends all go beyond the regulation 11 points. Twin Joshua also won in 5 sets, but his victory over Powell was also far from easy, with 2 of the sets being won 13-11 and 12-10. 3rd seed Phil Ogier was the most comfortable victor in the round due to his straight sets win over Ryan Bichard, whilst Foss had the toughest encounter of the round during his match with 5th seed Paul Hainsworth, where he was extended to 6 sets. Hainsworth held a strong 6-1 lead in the decisive 6th game, but Foss battled back well to edge through 11-9.

Lawrence defeated Ogier in straight sets in the first semi-final, but this was very harsh on Ogier, who competed well and lost a narrow 11-9, 12-10, 11-9, 14-12 match.

Foss on the other hand had to do it the hard way, as Joshua took the opening 2 games of their clash. Foss had led the 2nd game 7-2 before going down 11-7 and it looked like Stacey would have the momentum for the rest of the match. Foss however went up a few gears from here and motored through the final 4 games 11-8, 11-2, 11-4, 11-6 to book his place in the final.

Women's Singles

On the Women's side, the final will be between a pair of familiar faces in the form of 20 times champion Dawn Morgan and 18 times champion Kay Chivers. 

Morgan comfortably defeated Emma Webb and Sue Ferbrache in straight sets, with Febrache earlier earning an excellent straight sets win over 1st Division player Charlotte Casey.

Chivers on the other hand comfortably came through against Juliette Yeaman in the Quarter finals without loss, before an encounter with fellow 2nd Division player Paula Le Ber in the semis. Le Ber has been in a rich vein of form this year, which has included some impressive scalps in the 1st Division whilst reserving. It was a well contested match, however Chivers was too strong on the night and won 4-1.