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Senior
Guernsey
League: National C (6)
Players:
Alex Robinson, Josh Stacey, Lawrence Stacey, Ben Foss, Ryan Bichard, Jamie Ferbrache, Matt Casey, Sam Clark, Kenedy Chepkor, Mark Fallaize
DHS Hurricane Kingsway
League: Premier
Garry Dodd
Junior Girls
Guernsey A
League:
Division 5
Players:
Keira Eldridge, Olivia Gilbert, Thea Cummins
Guernsey B
League:
Division 5
Players:
Isla Bretel, Ella Le Ber, Emily Gavey, Katherine Hanson
Veterans
Guernsey 1
League:
Division 3 (Group 1)
Players:
Phil Ogier, Jamie Ferbrache, Steve Ozanne, Jez Powell
Reports
Veterans
Weekend 1 - 3rd-4th October
The leading Sarnian veteran table tennis players took centre stage this weekend, competing at the Veteran British Club League in the UK. The Veterans British Club League journey commenced 2 seasons prior for the Guernsey Table Tennis Association, having been yet to compete in the league before then.
Having gained promotion from the lowest rung in the pyramid, Division 5, in the debut season, a 3rd place finish was achieved in Division 4 last campaign. Despite not finishing in the top 2 positions which gain automatic promotion, the Guernsey side were fortunate enough to get the call up to Division 3, meaning their action is taking place in the 4th tier, behind only the Premier Division and Divisions 1 and 2. With action taking place at the impressive Derby Arena, which houses competition across all Divisions except Division 5, the players were familiar with this venue, which is also used for the Youth British League.
The weekend proved to be successful and saw just a single defeat incurred across 5 fixtures and leaves the side in 4th position of the 6-team strong Division, noting that the hotly contested Division sees just 3 points separating Guernsey from the league leaders, with all to play for when the sides meet again in February.
The congested opening day of action on Saturday across the 27-match tables saw 3 fixtures completed. First up was a clash with Draycott 3 and it ended as the first of three 3-3 stalemates during the weekend. 7-time Men’s Singles Island Champion Phil Ogier has been the leading veteran in Guernsey for several years and he set the tone in this opener with a pair of 4-set victories over England Number 108 Veteran Christopher Tarr and Mariusz Konopacki. Jamie Ferbrache was the player to secure the important 3rd victory during the penultimate game of the match, defeating Tony Smith in 4 sets. Steve Ozanne fought back from 2-0 down in the final match with Konopacki only to fall just short, 11-7 the score in the deciding end.
The second fixture came against a Foresters E side that tops the Division and saw the sole defeat of the weekend, 4-2 the score. They have one of the strongest players in the Division in the form of England 69th ranked Veteran Marc Burman and he proved to be the difference. Burman inflicted a first defeat to Ogier in 4-sets, whilst the unbeaten player experienced his closest match of the weekend, with him fighting back strongly to dispatch Ferbrache in 5-sets, having trailed 2-0. Ogier had started with a 4-set win over a familiar foe – Alex Rorke, a defensive player who has competed at numerous Island Games for Isle of Wight, including several prior meetings with Ogier, most notably a Men’s Singles Quarter-final in Shetland 2005, which Ogier also came out on top. Ozanne got off the mark in style courtesy of a comfortable straight sets win over Stuart Laws. Ferbrache competed well in the final game of the match but unfortunately fell to Laws in 4 sets.
The final fixture on the opening day resulted in an impressive hard-fought 4-2 win over a 3rd placed Ashford 2 side, in which all players contributed to the success. Ogier returned to his best here despite challenging clashes with strong players. He battled well on his way to matching 5-set wins over England Number 83 Veteran Jason Tendler and the dangerous Rajan Waterman. Ozanne and Ferbrache made sure of the victory due to each defeating Michael Silver in straight sets.
An unbeaten day of action on Sunday was achieved and this kicked off with a 3-3 draw with 5th placed side Lancashire Hotpots. Ogier once more showed his quality with another unbeaten fixture. His first win was crucial in that it saw him fight back from a 2-0 deficit to see off Manoj Gandhi over the distance, 11-9 the score in the decider. His other win came over Rick Beattie in 4 sets. Ferbrache started the match in style, blazing past Beattie in straight sets for the loss of just 12 points. He came mightily close to picking up the desired 4th rubber during his clash with Brian Oldfield but narrowly lost out 11-8 in the deciding end.
The weekend closed out with a 3-3 draw against the side in 2nd spot, Bristol/Gwent Associates 1 and saw equal contributions made. Ogier defeated Abubaker Salehbhai in straight sets, a result mirrored by Ozanne, whilst Ferbrache held his nerve in the final game of the weekend, overcoming Mark Farrow in 5 sets.
With all 5 sides to compete against again, the Guernsey contingent hope that they will be able to move into one of the top 2 spots and gain further traction in their unblemished climb up the Divisions.
Senior
Weekend 1 - 19th-20th September
The initial off-Island competition for some of the Island’s leading table tennis players took place this weekend, as action from the Senior British Club League took place. The action also saw a welcome return to 2 Guernsey teams competing in the leagues, having been reduced to a single team last season.
Both sides are competing for the honours in National C, which is the 5th tier within the recently expanded 6-tiered league, with action taking place at the Waterside Table Tennis Club, located in Testwood School in Totton, Southampton, a venue in which a number of the Sarnian players have competed at many seasons back. There are notable returns to the British League squad this season, including the returning Ben Foss and Ryan Bichard, who are back in the fold having missed the action last season. However, several leading players were unavailable for the opening weekend of action, including Alex Robinson and the twins Joshua and Lawrence Stacey.
Despite this, the Guernsey sides experienced a good level of success, with the first team ending the weekend in 2nd spot in the table, following 3 victories from 4. The downside of being in the same Division in National C6 led to the opening fixture faring the Guernsey sides against one another. The A side showed their superiority in the fixture and romped to an 8-1 victory. Foss and Bichard were in strong form in this tie, with each winning both of their singles matches, with Foss defeating Jamie Ferbrache and Matthew Casey in straight sets and Bichard earning a 4-set win over Casey and a straight sets win over Sam Clark. The pair also teamed to defeat Ferbrache and Clark in straight sets in the doubles match. Kenedy Chepkor beat Clark in straight sets, with the A side claiming 2 additional wins due to illness for Mark Fallaize. The sole victory for the B side came via Ferbrache’s 5-set win over Ozanne.
The afternoon fixture saw the sole low point of the weekend for the Guernsey 1 side as they were ousted 6-3 by Pingsters. Despite the defeat, the side rallied back well from a 4-0 deficit to get the tie back to 4-3 before falling to defeat. Foss and Bichard contributed equally to the 3 rubbers, commencing with a comfortable doubles win over the duo of Pedro Santos and Luca Gerrard in straight sets. Foss followed up with a 4-sets win over Santos, with Bichard battling past Charlie Usher in 5 sets. Foss came close to staying unbeaten but was edged 11-8 in the deciding set by Gerrard.
Sunday’s action saw a strong start which led to an emphatic 8-1 win over a St Austell TTC side that sits bottom of the Division. Foss was in cruise control in this fixture as he dispatched Craig Mehew and Arden Frew-Smith without coming close to dropping a set, with Bichard an equally comfortable straight sets winner over Frew-Smith and a 4-set winner over Peter Conway. Chepkor added a further 2 wins to his belt in impressive fashion, not dropping a set in his wins over Conway and Josh Hawken, whilst Steve Ozanne defeated Hawken in 4 sets. The doubles was won by Foss and Bichard over Hawken and Frew-Smith in straight sets, with Mehew’s 4-sets win over Ozanne preventing a whitewash.
The best result came in the final match of the weekend as a strong 6-3 win was achieved over the then unbeaten Worthing TTC A side. Foss and Bichard continued where they left off and ended the day unbeaten, with a further 5 rubbers added to the tally. For Foss, he defeated Ian Parkyn in straight sets before fighting back from a 2-1 deficit to see off England number 158 Jacob Evans 11-9 in the decider. Bichard also beat Evans in 5 sets in the match opener, before he earned a straight sets win over Angelo Robles. The duo completed their unbeaten weekend of doubles action, culminating in an 11-0 4th set victory over Parkyn and the unbeaten and unused Samuel Ashman in the doubles game. Ozanne picked up the other win when he outlasted Oliver Thorne in 5 sets.
For Guernsey 2, they find themselves in 7th position at the culmination of the opening weekend of action. Despite the unfortunate circumstances for Fallaize on the Saturday, he was able to compete in the fixtures that took place on Sunday. The best performances came against league leaders Joola Plymouth 2 on the Saturday where 2 wins were achieved. Clark fought back strongly from 2-1 down to get past Bailey Page 11-9 in the deciding end, whilst Casey combined with Ferbrache to dispatch Page and Daniel Kerr in straight sets in the doubles rubber.
Despite falling to matching 8-1 defeats on the Sunday, the sole victories were achieved as well as a number of unfortunate narrow defeats. Against Waterside TTC 2, Clark defeated Joshua Kelly 11-8 in the deciding end, whilst 3 other matches ended with Guernsey players on the wrong side of 5-set encounters. Casey was one such player as he fell to defeat by Umit Kaya, despite having started strongly with a 2-0 lead. Fallaize was extremely unfortunate to lose out to both James Roberts and Kelly over the distance. This was particularly evident against Kelly in the final game of the match, where after winning the 2nd set by an epic 22-20 scoreline to lead 2-0, he narrowly lost the remaining sets 11-6, 11-9, 12-10 to lose a cracking match which saw a whopping 123 points played.
The final fixture with Pingsters saw Casey get off the mark with a strong 4-set win over Santos and he also competed well against Gerrard, losing in 4 sets.
The next round of fixtures are set to take place on the weekend of 7th and 8th November.
With some of the Island’s leading table tennis players having kicked off their British League campaigns just a week prior, this weekend saw the turn of the elite-level players competing in the Premier Division, the highest of the 6-tier Divisional structure. The Division houses some of the strongest players in the country, including a significant amount of high-quality overseas players, several of which compete at a professional level. Included within this high calibre group of players is one of the leading players in the Channel Islands, Guernsey’s own Garry Dodd. The left-hander, currently based in the UK has competed in the lofty heights of the Premier Division of the British League structure before, whilst representing Scottish based side Drumchapel Glasgow during the 2023/24 season.
This season he finds himself part of a strong newly launched Sheffield based team, DHS Hurricane Kingsway who excelled during the opening fixtures of the season and find themselves in a strong position, just 2 points adrift from the leaders.
Included in their team is the recently signed French professional player Guillaume Alcayde, who currently competes in the Challenger Series, where he sits 14th in the rankings list. Also included is a familiar face in the form of Gotland’s Max Hedbom, the gold medallist from the Sarnian hosted Island Games in 2023. Outside of these players are several strong English players, Joe Sawyer and team lead Matthew Dodds, ranked 20 and 24 in the Table Tennis England rankings respectively. The other registered players are former Welsh star Daniel O’Connell, equivalently ranked 27 in England and Ferenc Horvath, who is equivalently ranked 44 in England. Dodd himself is equivalently ranked 24 in England, with an identical number of points as Dodds.
The structure of the Premier Division has changed this season. Gone are the home and away ties, replaced with 4 matches at a central venue, aligned with the other Divisions in the structure. This opening weekend’s fixtures took place at BATTS Table Tennis Club in Harlow, a venue where Dodd has competed at before. Dodd’s positive involvement came in the final 2 fixtures of the weekend, where the team secured 2 important victories. On the prior day, the team ended with a crucial narrow 4-3 win over Fusion I, following an initial hard fought 5-2 defeat by defending champions Ormesby TTC I, a match which was streamed live on Youtube.
Alcayde’s quality was already evident as he was unbeaten across all 4 singles rubbers on the opening day of action and this included a 4-set win over former England International and Commonwealth Games Men’s Team bronze medallist David McBeath, currently ranked 6 in England. Cue Dodd’s debut which came on Sunday morning against Nottingham 1, a side newly promoted from the Championship Division, as were the Hurricane side. Dodd’s opening clash saw him fall to a straight sets defeat at the hands of James Hobson, however he made amends for that defeat with a 5-set victory over England number 26 Adam Dennison. Alcayde continued his unbeaten run in this fixture.
The final match of the weekend saw a strong 5-2 win achieved over Irish based side Ormeau 1, who sit in 6th position. Dodd enjoyed another unbeaten fixture which included 2 fine narrow victories over quality opposition. His first win came over former Spanish Professional Oriol Monzo, who has been as high as 250 in the ITTF World Rankings. Having led 2-1, Dodd lost the 4th 11-5 leading to an epic deciding end in which he came through 13-11. His final fixture came against the impressive Irish youngster Peadar Sheridan, a bronze medallist at the recently held European Youth Championships in Portugal. In an incredibly tight affair in which every set was won beyond the regulation 11-point mark, Dodd looked to be in control when taking the opening 2 sets 13-11, 12-10. However, Sheridan is a classy player with good determination and fight, and he took matching 12-10 sets to force a deciding end. Once more the match was on a knife edge, however Dodd closed it out 12-10 to secure another strong win.
Alcayde impressively completed an unbeaten weekend and alongside Jose Enio Mendes from Ormesby are the only players to have won all 8 of their matches.
Youth
Weekend 1 - 10th-11th October
The final category of players to travel to the mainland to compete in British National League action were the Junior Girls, as 6 of the Island’s best travelled away this past weekend to compete in the Youth British Club League. Just a week after the Veterans had made their season bow in the British Leagues, the young Sarnians travelled to compete at the same Derby Arena venue, in Division 5, the lowest rung of the expanded 6-tiered leagues, up a Division from the prior season.
Having competed in the leagues last season, the same nexus of players was available for the season’s opening fixtures, with just Ella Le Ber an unfortunate late absentee due to injury, with Katherine Hansen stepping in. As well as a similar group of players, the structure of the Division was also aligned with last campaign, with both Guernsey sides competing in the same Division. Disappointingly the 5th Division is a team shorter than the other Divisions, with only 5 fighting for the honours, meaning the Sarnians miss out on 2 matches over the course of the season. The leading Guernsey 1 side excelled in their opening fixtures and concluded the first half of the season in 2nd position, with just a single defeat to the league leaders incurred.
Ironically, the weekend kicked off with a clash between the Guernsey outfits, and this resulted in a strong 5-1 win for the first-string side. Leading Junior player Keira Eldridge was a comfortable straight sets winner over Isla Bretel and Emily Gavey, whilst Thea Cummins beat Gavey in 4 sets and Hansen in straight sets. Olivia Gilbert opened her account with a straight sets win over Hansen, however, she was beaten soundly in 4 sets by Bretel, which prevented the whitewash.
The next match for Guernsey 1 saw a pivotal narrow 4-2 win achieved over a BTTC Ipswich side who ended the weekend in 4th place in the table. Eldridge continued her strong start and did not drop a set during wins over Shannon Heffer and Ruby Melero. Cummins too stayed unbeaten and was the player that crucially held her nerve in the final game of the encounter. Having started with a 4-set win over Hanusri Mohansundar, she looked in trouble when trailing Melero 2-0 in the crunch 6 th rubber. However, she showed superb fighting spirit and won the final 3 sets 11-6, 11-8, 11-6 to secure the points. Gilbert was unfortunate not to add to the victory, narrowly losing to Heffer in 5 sets in the match opener, despite having led 2-0.
The final game from Saturday’s action saw a 6-0 whitewash at the hands of the impressive Kingfisher Girls 2 side. Despite the heavy defeat, Eldridge did not let her unbeaten start end without a fight. Her opening match with the 37th best Under 17 Girl in England, Kaavya Pathak and saw her extend the match to a deciding set, when she took the close 4th 11-9. On this occasion, Pathak was too strong and took it 11-8. From here despite efforts from all Sarnian players, the Kingfisher girls were too strong, and they won the remaining 5 matches without dropping a set.
With a round off on Sunday morning, a crunch tie came with an Ormesby TTC 2 side that had also lost just a single match to the league leaders during the weekend. In a mirror result, the Guernsey side secured a narrow 4-2 win, which crucially keeps them ahead in the table. Eldridge returned to winning ways, concluding a super weekend of table tennis with another pair of straight sets wins over Aliya Zhuzbayeva and more impressively, top 20 England Under 17 player Harriet Goodwin. Cummins and Gilbert secured key 4-set wins over Evie Main to conclude the victory, with each losing to the strong Zhuzbayeva, who only lost to 1 player, other than Eldridge, all weekend.
For Guernsey 2, the players produced some encouraging performances despite not coming away with any match victories. Bretel took a set from Zhuzbayeva, whilst she picked up a 4-set win over Melero. Gavey lost a close 5-set encounter with Heffer but ended the weekend in style with an excellent straight sets win over Aeyva Fayaz from the league leaders, 1 of just 3 losses for the player over the weekend. The players now face a long wait before the remaining fixtures take place in February.
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