British League
2024-25
Senior
Guernsey 1
League: National A (1) Halton
Players: Ben Foss, Joshua Stacey, Lawrence Stacey, Ryan Bichard
Guernsey 2
League: National C (1) Halton
Players: Jamie Ferbrache, Joseph Bourgaize, Matthew Casey, Sam Clark, Connor Powell
Junior Boys
Guernsey 1
League: Division 9
Players: Aiden Ozanne, Barnaby Groves, Oskar Cleal
Veterans Men
Guernsey 1
League: Division 5 (Group 2)
Players: Jamie Ferbrache, Nye Matthew, Phil Ogier, Steve Ozanne
Junior British League - Weekend 1
The Guernsey Boys team had a mixed weekend in the first round of Junior British League for the 2024/25 season in Draycott. Returning to league action after a number of years out, the newly qualified young Sarnians displayed some impressive performances against tough competition in Division 9 and demonstrated their ability to compete strongly at this level.
The team of Barnaby Groves, Oskar Cleal and Aiden Ozanne are all under-15, often playing against older opponents and endured a challenging start on Saturday morning. They experienced 5-1 defeats against London Academy 3 and Ackworth TT 2, with both opposition teams fielding players highly ranked in the national cadet standings. However, the Sarnians showed resilience and fought hard, with Ozanne defeating London’s Zacharia Sarri and Groves beating Muhammed Chishti, both 3-2.
As the weekend progressed, the team's fortunes improved. They secured a 4-2 win over Fusion 2, where Cleal and Ozanne were only narrowly defeated by strong English under-19 player Liyan Azis, and followed that up with impressive 6-0 victories over Horsham TTC and bottom-placed TJSB, the latter match featuring all wins in straight sets. These results propelled Guernsey to third place in the eight-team league, behind only London Academy and Ackworth, setting them up for a promising second weekend of action in February.
Veterans British League - Weekend 1
The Guernsey Table Tennis Association has enjoyed continued involvement within the Senior British National Leagues for many years now. This involvement has been fruitful and has enabled the Island’s leading players to improve the overall standard of the local game. Until this season however, Guernsey had never sent a team to compete in the Veterans British League. With the hosting of the extremely popular and successful Veterans Six Nations under our belt in September, it was finally the time for some of Guernsey’s leading Veterans to travel across the water and compete in the Veterans British Club League for the first time.
The destination was the impressive Draycott and Long Eaton Table Tennis Club in the East Midlands. The venue is the biggest in the East Midlands and is self-declared as having some of the best playing conditions within the UK. Whilst the Senior British Club League sees action spread across several venues within the UK, the Veterans is one of the exceptions, with all action taking place at the same venue. The competition is fierce and of a sizable scale, with action taking place across 6 Divisions, with 10 separate leagues in
operation. This all equates to an impressive 64 teams competing, meaning 32 matches took place in each of the 5 rounds contested over the weekend.
Due to Guernsey not having competed before, the Sarnians found themselves at the bottom of the pyramid in Division 5 (Group 2). It ended up being an excellent weekend of action, with Guernsey ending unbeaten and top of the table, 2 points clear of their nearest rivals. Whilst teams are comprised of 3 players, Guernsey sent a larger squad of 4 players, to spread the load of the busy weekend of action. Phil Ogier, Jamie Ferbrache, Steve Ozanne, and Nye Matthew all excelled during the weekend, with all players winning at least half of their matches, including an unbeaten 8 wins for Ogier, who tops the averages.
First up on Saturday morning was Foresters F, and a familiar face was in their ranks in the form of Stuart Seaholme, the recent Over 75’s Men’s Doubles winner at the Guernsey hosted Veterans Home Nations competition. Seaholme gave a good account for himself against Ogier in particular, with Ogier needing to fight back from 2-1 down to edge through the final 2 ends 12-10, 11-8. Ferbrache dispatched Seaholme in 4 sets in the match opener and followed up with a 4-set win over Chris Pullinger. Ogier dispatched Faldie Adams in 4 sets in his other match, whilst Steve Ozanne got his campaign underway successfully, defeating Pullinger in straight sets. The whitewash did slip away in the end, as Faldie bounced back from losing the opening end and dispatched Ozanne in 4 sets in the final match of the clash.
Next saw a matching 5-1 victory obtained against Dyflin and saw the debut of Matthew. Matthew defeated David Gibbons in 4 sets, before he recovered from a 2-1 deficit to earn a gritty 5 set win over Thomas Fitzgerald. Ogier also had a tussle with Fitzgerald in the match opener and he did just enough to win the deciding end 13-11. His other win came against David Pender in straight sets. Ozanne beat Gibbons in straight sets but was defeated in 4 sets by Pender. The first day of action saw completion of a trio of 5-1 wins, this time Smash Table Tennis Kettering on the wrong side of the heavy defeat. This fixture was however a lot closer than the score suggests, with 4 matches going the full 5 set distance, with Ogier rested. The only comfortable wins were in straight sets and were obtained by Matthew and Ozanne against Barry Thompson. Matthew’s other win came over Terence Clifton in 5 sets, 11-8 the score in the final end. Ozanne on the other hand did excellently to fight back from 2-0 down in a 5-set win over Gary Pells. Ferbrache narrowly lost out in 5 sets to Clifton in the match opener, despite having led 2-1, but he bounced back well with a comeback win of his own. Like Ozanne, he too trailed Pells 2-0, before powering through in 5 sets.
Sitting pretty heading into the 2 fixtures on Sunday, a tough test lie ahead against the closest rivals for the title and venue hosts, Draycott 4. The return of Ogier was crucial to the result as he was unbeaten. His first win came against Allan Lumpod in straight sets, before he navigated past the tricky Tony Smith in 5 sets. Matthew was the player to pick up the pivotal third rubber as he defeated Malcolm Truman in 4 sets. The fixture saw the other 3 rubbers picked up by Draycott in straight sets.
A top place finish to the weekend was ensured after a fourth 5-1 win of the weekend was obtained over third placed Albert TTC in the final game. Ogier once more in good form and he put in his most assured performances of the weekend during comfortable straight sets wins over Phil Summers and Nadeem Ahmed. Ozanne also finished strongly with a 4-set win over Lichao Geng and a 5-set win over Summers where he won the decisive end 12-10. Ferbrache closed proceedings on the weekend with a 4-set win over Geng but fell to Ahmed by the same score earlier in the fixture. With promotions hopes high on the radar, the side will now have a long wait until 22nd & 23rd February next year to conclude their debut campaign.
Senior British League - Weekend 1
It was a difficult start for Guernsey’s squads in the first round of this season’s British Clubs Leagues. Playing in a familiar venue in Halton, the Guernsey ‘A’ team compete in National League A, the third division of the revamped league structure, but experienced defeat against some strong opposition. The team consisted of Joshua Stacey, Ben Foss, Ryan Bichard and reserves Andy Gill and Jamie Ferbrache. They started off with an 8 -1 loss to Draycott 1, and although there were some creditable performances against high class opposition, Stacey gained the only match win, beating Adam Feargrieve, ranked 155 in England. Ben Foss put in a good showing but narrowly missed out against David Arrowsmith 3-2 and 42nd-ranked Artur Veeck Caltabiano 3-1.
The second much of the day also ended 8-1 against the Sarnians as they faced East Midlands TTC 1. This Ben Foss gained the solitary win with a 3-2 battle over mainland-based Caesarean Luke Greenfield, triumphing 13-11 in the 5th game.
Sunday morning started with a marginally better result, going down 7-2 to North Ayrshire 2, this time Foss and Joshua Stacey each claimed wins, the former overcoming Nathan Hogg, while Stacey played well to earn a straight sets victory over David Hay. There were also narrow losses for the Sarnians in the doubles contest as well as Foss’s individual match against Chris Main where he lost deuce in the 5th game, showing that the team have a chance of taking points in the reverse fixture later in the season. The weekend concluded with an 8-1 defeat against Allied TTC, this time Ryan Bichard with the sole win in the 5th game against Olivier Barthelemy.
The Guernsey ‘B’ team consisted of Joe Bourgaize, Matt Casey and Sam Clark as well as Ferbrache and Gill. They also got off to a tricky start with an 8-1 loss to Ward Road Warriors Dundee, the league newcomers clearly have strength in depth as they won 6 of the rubbers in straight sets, although Bourgaize did well to defeat Callum Riddoch. A close match followed as they lost to Birmingham TTA 1 by a score of 6-3. The Sarnians raced into a 3-1 lead with Ferbrache, Casey and Clark all claiming victories, but Birmingham’s experienced Ed Lynn proved too strong and the last 3 rubbers were all lost on the deciding set, proving that there is little to separate the teams.
Sunday brought a 7-2 loss to Aberdeen & District with Matt Casey doing well to defeat Andrew McRae, before the team went down to the Isle of Man 6-3, Bourgaize, Gill and Clark with the wins.
While both teams returned winless, they will be looking to rectify this during the next round of matches on 16th and 17th November.
Preview Report - Senior British League Weekend 1
With the domestic table tennis season having commenced a few weeks ago, all but the leading Division 1 players have begun their campaigns. Some of the Island’s top players are due to travel to the UK this weekend for the commencement of action in the Senior British National Leagues for the 2024/25 season, in a rare occurrence which will see this take place prior to the start of the top-flight of the Doric Insurance sponsored senior leagues locally, which is due to start the following week.
Guernsey has committed itself to the British National League structure this campaign as it will see teams competing in both the Veterans and Junior versions, starting a few weeks down the line.
The immediate priority however is the Senior British Club Leagues, with 2 Sarnian squads ready to travel to Widnes in Cheshire to compete at the Halton Regional Table Tennis Centre. The first team is unchanged from last season and is dominated by all 4 individuals that made up the successful Inter-Insular Green Trophy team from earlier this year in the form of Ben Foss, Joshua Stacey, Lawrence Stacey and Ryan Bichard, who was the man of the match in that big clash, replacing Foss due to injury. Lawrence is unavailable for the first weekend of action and defending Island Over 50’s Men’s Doubles champion, Andy Gill, will be stepping in to reserve.
The second team on the other hand consists of Jamie Ferbrache, Joseph Bourgaize, Matthew Casey, and Sam Clark, with Connor Powell set to play in the third round of fixtures in December, due to the absence of Bourgaize.
Guernsey 1 has been competing in National A-1 for the past few seasons, this being the third tier of the pyramid, behind only the Premier and Championship Divisions. Last season they finished in 5th position and will be hopeful of improving upon that this season, following a number of narrow defeats last time out. The other 7 teams in National A-1 share several familiarities with the prior season, as 4 of them competed in this Division alongside Guernsey last season.
On the new clubs to the Division is eBaTT 1, who are a table tennis club from London, guided by Eli Baraty, who is registered as the number 3 player. Eli is a leading table tennis coach in England and also an ITTF qualified coach. Their highest ranked player is Sammy Kaye, who is just outside the top 50 in the English Senior Men’s ranking list. Another of the new clubs is Butterfly Lilleshall 1 and on paper they look like they could be very hard to beat. Their leading player is Ferenc Horvath, who is equivalently ranked 36 in the Senior Men’s rankings, whilst they also have Veterans Michael O’Driscoll and Paul Cicchelli, ranked 58 and 64, respectively.
The final new club is Allied TTC and this is led by England Number 44 Rhys Davies and also contains a familiar face in the 9th best Veteran in England, Ritchie Venner. Venner competed in Guernsey over the weekend at the Veterans Home Nations competition and won team gold and Men’s Doubles alongside Darren Griffin in the Over 50’s category. He also claimed a silver in the Over 50’s Men’s Singles, losing out narrowly in 5 sets to England’s 3rd best veteran Jason Ramage.
East Midlands TTC 1 have Lewis Waddup and Jersey’s Luke Greenfield in their line-up, both players ranked inside the top 50, whilst Draycott 1 have England number 42 Artur Veeck Caltabiano and the returning Naphat Boonyaprapa. Boonyaprapa is a former winner of the English National Junior Boys Doubles and a former England representative.
Guernsey 2 on the other hand is in a similar boat and share the Division with a number of the same teams as last season, including Isle of Man. Newcomers Birmingham TTA 1 appear to be strong on paper as their top player Edward Lynn is ranked just outside the top 150 in the English Men’s rankings. There are also a few unknowns in the former of Scottish based clubs Ward Road Warriors – Dundee and Aberdeen and District.