Tournament Reports 2023-24

Jack Carrington

Phil Ogier won his 6th Jack Carrington Singles title on Monday evening following a hard fought 4 set win over defending champion Ryan Bichard in the final. This was a reverse of the final from the prior year when Bichard had beaten Ogier by the same score in the final.

The event, which precludes players to have represented Guernsey in the blue riband Green Trophy Inter-Insular event for the past 2 years, was well represented with a strong entry of 36 individuals all vying for the title, despite Ben Foss, Joshua Stacey and Lawrence Stacey being ineligible to compete.

All 12 groups of 3 players contained a seeded player, all of which compete in the top flight of the Doric Insurance sponsored leagues. These players all showed their quality and ended as group winners. The narrowest of these was in Group K where Andy Gill just managed to edge out Division 2 player Kay Chivers over the full 5 set distance. Chivers led 2-1 in their encounter before Gill powered through the 4th set 11-4. He trailed 6-2 in the deciding end but fought hard and came through the deciding end 11-9 to top the group and leave Chivers as runner-up.

Some of the Island’s younger players continued to impress and none more so than 11-year-old Luke Evans, who managed to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition. He secured an excellent 5 set win over the more experienced Division 2 player Ben Foote in a match which he trailed 2-1 in. He battled hard to edge the 4th set 12-10 and from there won the decider comfortably, to progress as Group C runner-up.

Another youngster who excelled was 4th Division junior Micah Cohen. Cohen gave 3rd Division’s Steve Martin a real scare when leading 2-1, before the extra experience told and Martin managed to win in 5.

Evans evening ended in the first knockout round to fellow Division 3 player Shaun Mosley in 4 sets, whilst Chivers continued her evening with a strong straight sets win over Division 1 player Shelby Timms. The surprise of the first knockout round came from Henri Whitehorne who used his unconventional style to outlast Andy Ferbrache 11-9 in the decider. The match contained some excellent rallies with Whitehorne showing great composure.

Whitehorne continued to play good table tennis in the Round of 16, but he found 3rd seed Paul Hainsworth too strong and lost in straight sets.

The round of 16 saw a few surprise results and none more so than 9th seed Matthew Casey’s straight sets win over 5th seed Jez Powell. The other surprise results saw 11th seed Gill overcome 7th seed Joseph Bourgaize in straight sets and 12th seed Sam Clark edge past 8th seed Nye Matthew 11-9 in the deciding end of their clash. All other seeds made expected comfortable progress to the Quarters, including 6th seed Jamie Ferbrache who came through a tricky match with 10th seed Steve Ozanne in straight sets.

The Quarter Finals did ultimately see the top 4 seeds expectedly through to the semis, but 2 of these matches could have gone either way. The 2 matches that were comfortable were Ogier and Bichard. Ogier beat Gill for the loss of just 12 points, whilst Bichard dispatched Clark for the loss of just 19 points.

4th seed Liam Robilliard had the toughest route to the semis as he was in danger of exiting the competition when trailing Ferbrache 2-0. He fought back superbly though to win over the full 5 set distance. A few tables down Hainsworth was embroiled in a tough match with Casey. Casey had continued where he left off against Powell and was playing some strong table tennis, enabling him to force a deciding leg when he took the 4th 11-7. A fortunate net gave him the initiative in the first point of the decider, but Hainsworth was always in front after that, with a couple of fortunate points of his own prior to the change of ends, enabling him to comfortably take it 11-5.

Ogier was a comfortable straight sets winner of Hainsworth in the first semi-final, with Hainsworth only testing Ogier in the concluding 3rd set, which Ogier eventually clinched 14-12. On the adjacent table the first set between Bichard and Robilliard was key, and it was the younger player, Bichard, who edged it 14-12. Despite Robilliard battling hard and taking a close 3rd set 11-9, he was unable to continue this run, and Bichard comfortably took the 4th set 11-4 to make the final.

Ogier set the tone in the final with a comfortable 11-5 set, but Bichard came straight back by taking the second 11-8. The third and fourth sets could have gone either way, but Ogier stayed strong and took both 11-9. Bichard had been threatening a fightback in the 4th when he clawed it back from 9-6 to 9-9, however two clever heavy chop returns from Ogier at this point forced the forehand topspin errors by Bichard and secured another crown for Ogier.

Lions Spot for Sport

 Lawrence Stacey’s return to form continued with success in the Lions Spot for Sport Open Singles tournament on Monday evening as he successfully defended the crown won last year and making him a 3-time winner in the process.

His title was concluded courtesy of a hard fought 4 set victory over the record holding 10-time former champion Phil Ogier and ended the impressive run of Ben Foss, who had won all 3 Open Singles tournaments so far this season.

The tournament was well supported with 30 players contesting the initial group stages of the event, despite the fact it was being held during half term.

The 10 seeded players all navigated safe route to the knockout stages as group winners, however this did not prevent some interesting clashes from taking place.

The final group was particularly tough as it saw 10th seed Nye Matthew up against fellow top flight player Andy Gill and the rising junior player Aiden Ozanne and the group outlasted all others by a significant amount of time. It started quickly as Matthew impressively ousted Gill in straight sets but was followed by 2 hard fought 5 set matches included 3rd Division junior Ozanne. Ozanne was playing some excellent table tennis against his seeded opposition Matthew first out and led 2-1 after pinching a tight third end 12-10. The match saw some excellent long rallies and shots from both players as Matthew comfortably took the fourth end to force a decider. This was another set which could have gone either way, but Matthew did just enough and edged it 12-10 to secure top spot in the group. Ozanne was up against Gill in the final match to see who would join the seed in the knockout rounds. Ozanne comfortably took the first, before Gill managed to secure control of the match by winning the next 2 ends tightly and he followed this up with a commanding 6-0 lead in the fourth set. Ozanne showed great fight which saw him incredibly turn it around and take it 11-9, but unfortunately ran out of steam as Gill’s added experience showed in the final set, which he took 11-5.

Another youngster to impress was Ozanne’s Lions J team-mate Luke Evans, who had recently won the Under 11 Bribar Plymouth Junior 4* event in the UK over the weekend. Evans was in a group containing ninth seed Joseph Bourgaize and the tricky 3rd Division player Ken Falla. He overcame Falla well in 4 sets to make his way to the knockout rounds.

Another notable group saw third seed Ogier drawn against fellow Division 1 player Steve Ozanne and the effective difficult Division 2 averages leader Craig Dunning. Ogier topped the group with a brace of straight sets wins, whilst Ozanne played a solid match to dispatch Dunning in straight sets.

Onward to the knockout stages and it saw the exit of young Evans at the Last 32 stage, although not without a stellar effort. He was up against Ozanne and held his own admirably, despite losing in 4 sets. Another particularly tricky match during this stage of the event saw Bourgaize outlast Gill in 5 sets after a strong comeback from 4-1 down in the deciding end.

The Last 16 saw the expected seeded players move onward to the next round in all cases except for 2 matches. The first match saw the unseeded Matthew Casey impressively end the evening of sixth seed Liam Robilliard in 4 sets, whilst Matthew defeated Lions B team-mate and eighth seed Jamie Ferbrache, also in 4 sets.

Champion Stacey escaped a real scare against Ozanne at this stage. Ozanne took a 2-1 lead when winning the third set 14-12, but from here on Stacey ramped up his level significantly and took the remaining 2 ends for the loss of just 4 points.

The Quarter Finals saw the top 4 seeds expectedly make their way to the semis. Top seed Foss beat Matthew, second seed Joshua Stacey beat Jez Powell, third seed Ogier overcame Paul Hainsworth and fourth seed Lawrence defeated Casey, all of these in straight sets, despite a number of them containing some closely contested sets.

The semi-finals saw some entertaining matches for those in attendance and none more so than the clash between Joshua and Ogier. The match was nip and tuck and saw some superb rallies and shots from both players. Stacey looked to be in the ascendancy and was close to victory in the 4th set, however Ogier held firm with some excellent resolve and won the final 2 sets by matching 12-10 scores.

The other semi saw Lawrence impressively overcome Foss in 4 sets, with some very consistent and controlled table tennis, perhaps his best of the season so far.

The final started with Ogier quick out of the blocks as he rushed through it 11-2. The second end was relatively tight through the early and middle stages before Stacey motored through the latter stages and took it 11-6. The final 2 sets were also hard fought, but Stacey continued to display the excellent form he had shown in the semi-finals and had too much on the night, winning them 11-7, 11-6 and regaining his crown.

Channel Islands Open Top 12

Action from the inter-Island Open Top 12 competition on Saturday was extremely fruitful for the 6-strong Sarnian qualifiers, with the top 4 spots all going to players from the Guernsey hosts.

Scheduled to take place in Jersey, Guernsey stepped in to host this 2024 staging of the event, due to the tragic events that befell the Geoff Reed Table Tennis Centre in Jersey, in November, where Storm Ciaran caused extensive damage.

Guernsey have largely dominated this event over the last 15 years, with only Craig Gascoyne (2010) and Jordan Wykes (2016) having emerged as victors for the Caesareans.

Lawrence Stacey, Joshua Stacey and Ryan Bichard were the leading Sarnian trio heading into the event, with each having lost just 1 match, to each other, during the local Guernsey qualification event just before Christmas.

In the end the twins won all 6 of their matches against their Jersey counterparts and this saw Joshua come away with the title, which he last won in Jersey in 2020. This also ensured that the trophy had a Guernsey winner etched for the 7th consecutive staging. Bichard lost a single match on the day to finish third, whilst veteran Phil Ogier matched the feat Joshua and Lawrence and also enjoyed a day of unbeaten action and finished 4th.

The Jersey line-up had a particularly youthful feel to it and included just 2 senior players, in the form of Jersey’s Island Games 2023 representative Alfie Sutherland, who topped the Jersey qualifier, and defending Channel Islands Restricted Open Singles champion and former Green Trophy player in the form of the experienced defensive player Chris Morshead.

This youthful feel gave the upper hand to a Sarnian contingent, conversely full of experience, including 3 Veteran’s, with Super Veteran Andy Gill believed to the eldest Guernsey qualifier in recent times and perhaps within the history of the competition. The extra quality and experience showed throughout the morning’s play as it saw the Guernsey players incredibly restrict the Jersey players to just 7 wins from the 36 matches contested.

4 of these wins came from the previously mentioned Sutherland and Morshead, whilst Jersey’s leading rising Junior John Le Fondre also won twice. Sutherland was the pick of the Jersey players as he competed well in most of his matches. He defeated Gill in straight sets in his opening match, before edging Jez Powell 11-9 in the 5th set of their clash in the third round of matches. His unbeaten start ended in round 2 when Ogier battled past in 5 sets.

Morshead also started brightly with an impressive straight sets win over Bichard, but he was unable to secure any further success until the final round of the day, when he overcame Powell in 4 sets.

Le Fondre’s results were very similar to Sutherland as he too earned wins over Gill and Powell, this time in 4 and 5 sets respectively. His win against Powell was also very tight and ended as 11-9 in the deciding set.

The final win for the Jersey side came from Theo de Poerk, who was the final Jersey qualifier. He did excellently to overcome Gill in 4 sets in the second round of the day.

But the rest of the story was all about Guernsey as, the players excelled.

Victor Josh was untroubled, dropping just 2 single sets over the course of the day, during 4 set wins over Sutherland and Le Fondre. He clinched the crown by virtue of his 5-set win over Lawrence during the Guernsey qualifier, as each player was tied on 21 points. Had Bichard gone unbeaten against Jersey, then Lawrence would have taken the title on count-back.

Runner-up Lawrence was even more impressive on the day as he dropped just the single set, and this came in the final match of the day to Sutherland.

Third placed Bichard may have experienced the early setback in defeat to Morshead, but he was very impressive in his other matches and dropped just the single set to Le Fondre in the process.

Ogier showed his quality during the day and despite being pushed to a deciding set by Sutherland, won all his other matches in straight sets, with the exception of 4 set wins over Morshead and William Cornthwaite.

Powell finished the event in a respectable 7th position and was unfortunate due to the very narrow previously noted 5 set losses incurred to Sutherland and Le Fondre. His 4-set loss to Morshead was the only other blemish as he comfortably beat the other Jersey players.

Gill too had a strong day’s action and finished in 9th spot overall. The highlight of the 3 victories he obtained on the day was undoubtably his quality straight sets win over Morshead during round 4, with his strong forehand topspin attacking shots dominating proceedings.

The event was excellent and saw some strong table tennis contested in excellent spirits, with good sportsmanship shown.