Island Championships Finals
Post date: Mar 31, 2019 9:28:7 PM
The 2019 Island Championships came to a close on Friday night with one of the closest Men's finals in living memory as Lawrence Stacey claimed his first Men's Singles title, holding off the challenge of Ben Foss 4-3. Dawn Morgan claimed her 21st Women's title on the adjacent table, defeating long time rival Kay Chivers 4-0.
Some selected images are below, but the full gallery of photos is available on the GTTA Flickr site, courtesy of Mark Windsor. Also thanks to all the umpires, officials and helpers that made the Championships a success.
The trophies were presented by Jan Hawke from La Fraternelle. The GTTA would like to thanks La Fraternelle for their continued sponsorship of the Island Championships
Ben Foss may have fallen just short in his attempts at clinching the flagship Men’s Singles and Men’s Doubles crowns during the recent Island Championship Finals night, but he was one of the big winners in the other events he competed in.
He picked up 3 Island titles comprising the Under 18 Men’s Singles, Under 21 Open Singles and the Under 18 Open Doubles. His opponent in each of the singles clashes was Dan Collenette, who has been in a rich vein of form this season, in particular the second half. Each of the matches were hard-fought, but Foss was too strong and ended out taking both matches 4-0. The Under 18 Open Doubles also saw Foss on the opposite side of the table to Collenette and the outcome was again straight sets, the team of Foss and Ryan Bichard getting the better of Collenette and his partner Billy Ogier.
Dawn Morgan was the biggest winner of all in terms of Island Singles titles in 2019 as she added a further title to the showpiece Women’s Singles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles titles. This came in the Women’s Veterans Singles where she edged the 6th end of a tight clash with long-time rival Kay Chivers 12-10. She was however unable to complete an unbeaten evening and clean sweep of titles due to her surprise defeat in the Over 50’s Open Singles final to Andy Gill. Gill played his best table tennis of the season to blow Morgan away with consistent attacking strokes off both the forehand and backhand wings which led to a mightily impressive straight sets win.
Phil Ogier has been utterly dominant in the Over 40’s category since his inclusion. 6 years competing has led to 6 titles in each of the Over 40’s Open Singles and Over 40’s Open Doubles events. His victory in the singles came against doubles partner Jez Powell in 5 sets, with the duo later combining to pick up their 6th straight crown together courtesy of a 5 set win against Mark Pipet and Tim Le Page.
Kay Chivers picked up the Over 60’s Open Singles title to add to her Women’s Doubles crown. She emerged a surprise 5 set winner over top seeded 1st Division player Mark Pipet, whilst there was a new name on the Over 70’s Open Singles title for just the second time since 2008. Ian Fitchet has long dominated the event where he had won the title 10 times out of the last 11 occasions. He was however unavailable for finals night and this led to top seed Keith Opie picking up the title following a 5 set win over former Association president Ken Falla.
Paul Hainsworth has experienced good success in the Restricted Open Singles category, which was started 6 years ago. This category is for players between the age of 21 and 40 that have not competed in the Green trophy inter-insular event over the past few years. This year for example it would have prevented Joshua and Lawrence Stacey from entering. He followed up on this and underlined his top seeding courtesy of a straight sets win over the popular debut finalist Jamie Ferbrache.
At the younger end of the scale the titles were shared between a number of upcoming talents. Jamie Regan was the winner of the Under 11 Open Singles crown as he defeated Remi Tomlin in straight sets. Jayden Tucknott continues to improve and he picked up his first Island title when he won the Under 13 Open Singles title against Shelby Timms in 6 sets. Ben Sharp has had a strong season in the 2nd Division and he backed up his top seeding in the Under 15 Boys singles event to defeat 2nd seed Caden Brouard in 6 sets. This followed his Under 13 success last year. Sisters Tia and Shelby Timms were the final winners in the Under 15 and Under 18 Girls categories respectively. Each defeated the top seeded player Erin Vaudin in the finals. In each instance the score was 4-2 in favour of the Timms siblings.
The Channel Island Championship finals will be contested at the Geoff Reed table tennis centre in Jersey on the evening of Friday 26th April. The evening is expected to be finished with the usual blue riband Men’s and Women’s Singles clashes. Lawrence Stacey will be looking to win his first CI Men’s Singles title when he comes up against Mariusz Cieminski, whilst Dawn Morgan will come up against the young Jersey player Irene Bree.