The Sportingbet Guernsey first team had a tough time in rounds seven and eight of the South and Midlands Senior British table tennis League in Slough at the weekend. The side were standing in fifth position with a total of six points.

First up they took on the league’s second-placed outfit, OLOP Impact. OLOP fielded arguably their strongest side and later in the day beat the league leaders, TTK Greenhouse. On this occasion Guernsey were no match for their opponents and they were on the wrong end of a 6-2 result. OLOP’s number one, the highly ranked English veteran Dave Barr, and Welsh number five Stephen Gertsen, were both very impressive in their matches.

Barr is a defensive style player who deceptively mixes heavy backspin shots with no spin returns and this clever variation forced errors from both Garry Dodd and Olly Langlois in their matches. Gertsen gave a lesson in counter-attacking table tennis in his matches against Langlois and his brother Adam. But both Dodd and Phil Ogier beat OLOP number two Chris Bush, who is ranked around 100 in England, in the deciding end to create a more respectable score line of 3-2.