CI Championships & Inter Insulars

25th - 26th April 2025, Fort Regent, Jersey

Channel Island Championships

Full Results  |  Photos

Men's Singles

Garry Dodd beat Chris Wheeler, 11-7, 11-9, 11-8, 11-4

Women's Singles

Hannah Silcock beat Kay Chivers, 11-4, 11-5, 14-12, 11-7

Men's Doubles

Luc Miller & Leon Pierre beat Garry Dodd & Joshua Butler, 11-7, 11-7, 12-10, 11-4

Women's Doubles

Kathryn Silcock & Hannah Silcock beat Kay Chivers & Marli Barker, 11-4, 8-11, 11-5, 11-8, 10-12, 14-12

Mixed Doubles

Luc Miller & Hannah Silcock beat Garry Dodd & Marli Barker, 11-3, 12-10, 11-9, 11-4

Under 11 Open Singles

Rory Quinn beat Morgan Finn, 11-1, 11-2, 11-2, 11-2

Under 13 Open Singles

Jonty Porter beat Luke Evans, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8, 12-10

Under 15 Boys Singles

Theo De Poerck beat Luke Evans, 11-1, 11-4, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10

Under 15 Girls Singles

Ella Devlin beat Keita Eldridge, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8

Under 18 Men's Singles

William Cornthwaite beat Luke Evans, 11-6, 11-5, 11-7, 11-3

Under 18 Women's Singles

Hannah Silcock beat Keira Eldridge, 11-5, 11-5, 12-10, 11-8

Under 18 Open Doubles

John Le Fondre & Hannah Silcock beat Oskar Cleal & Cameron Powell, 11-8. 12-10, 11-3, 16-14 

Under 21 Open Singles

Hannah Silcock beat Oskar Cleal 11-3, 11-4, 11-6, 11-5

Restricted Singles

Paul Hainsworth beat Jack Mills, 3-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-4 , 11-8

Veterans Singles

Gregorz Frankowski beat Phil Ogier, 11-8, 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-7

Women's Veterans Singles

Kay Chivers beat Anita Medvedovski, 11-4, 11-1, 11-1, 11-2

Veterans Doubles

Mariusz Cieminski & Gregorz Frankowski beat Phil Ogier & Jez Powell, 11-2, 11-6, 11-6, 8-11, 9-11, 11-3

Over 50 Singles

Phil Ogier beat Ian Lambert, 11-2, 14-12, 11-7, 11-3

Over 60 Singles

Eugene Ellis beat Mark Pipet, 7-11, 13-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 12-10

Over 70 Singles

Keith Opie beat Frank Bougeard, 11-6 ,11-4, 11-8, 11-8

Inter Insulars

Full results

The Channel Island Championships and Inter-Insulars held at Fort Regent in Jersey over the weekend were tough for the Sarnians, with the hosts emerging with most of the success. The strong Caesarean contingent came away with the majority of spoils, however Guernsey did clinch the blue riband Men’s Singles title, as well as pick up 4 other CI titles and a number of Inter-Insular trophies.

CI Championships Finals Night

The action kicked off sharp at 18:00 on Friday evening, with most Guernsey players experiencing competing at Fort Regent for the first time, following the sad devastation of the Geoff Reed Table Tennis centre by Storm Ciaran in November 2023.

Whilst Jersey did come away with the majority of spoils, 5 different Guernsey individuals were able to clinch CI titles, with all coming from the ‘old guard’ due to all winners having played the sport in Guernsey in excess of 23 years.

Garry Dodd’s victory in the showpiece Men’s Singles clash was the highlight, with him having proved himself to be one of the leading players in the Channel Islands in the past 17 years and victory here secured his 4th consecutive and 11th overall CI Men’s Singles title. He now stands in 2nd spot in terms of most wins in this event after leapfrogging Frank Bougeard from Jersey who has 10. He is just behind Bert Brenton from Guernsey, who won 13 between 1924 and 1947.

Dodd’s opponent in the final was perhaps his toughest on paper since he last failed to lift the crown in 2016. Chris Wheeler is a former Scottish International, who has experienced significant success during his short career, particularly during his junior days. He is a former 3-time British Primary Schools International Boys Champion as well as a multiple time winner of Cadet and Junior events at the Junior 6 Nations. He also won a Scottish Mixed Doubles title and 11 Scottish titles at Minor, Cadet, and Junior level between 2009 and 2016. He has represented Scotland at numerous events, including the Commonwealth Championships in India and was formerly ranked in the top 5 in Scotland at Senior level.

Dodd had been playing at Drumchapel Glasgow in the Premier Division of the Senior British League last season, with Wheeler also in the squad as a reserve, so the players were aware of each other prior to this meeting.

The final was of a good standard, but Dodd set the pace early and asserted himself as the dominant force after opening a strong lead in the opener. Despite a good fightback from Wheeler, Dodd was able to close it out 11-7. He continued to be in control throughout the rest of the encounter, however Wheeler continued to fight well in the 2nd and 3rd sets, Dodd taking them 11-9, 11-8. From here though Dodd raised his level and comfortably sealed the win 11-4 in the 4th and final set.

Phil Ogier is himself a 3-time former CI Men’s Singles Champion and he continues to clinch silverware. Having won the Over 50’s Open Singles title at debut last year, he followed up on this conclusively during CI Finals night. He was tested only in the 2nd set by Ian Lambert, where the end was sealed 14-12, with him mopping up the other 3 sets for the loss of just 12 points.

Paul Hainsworth picked up a 2nd Restricted Open Singles CI title after battling past the tricky defender Jack Mills in 5 sets, in a repeat of the 2019 CI final, where Hainsworth had won in straight sets. Things looked ominous for Hainsworth after Mills stormed through the opening set 11-3, with the Caesarean also displaying his strong forehand attacking stokes that he possesses. Hainsworth weathered the storm well and despite failing to convert his first 3 set points in the 2nd set from 10-6, he managed to seal it 11-9. An 11-8 success in the 3rd followed by a comfortable 11-4 outcome in the 4th put him on the brink. Mills showed good resolve however in the 5th and led 7-5. Hainsworth was determined to conclude proceedings here and he stormed back to take 6 of the next 7 points, sealing it 11-8.

Kay Chivers is a 6-time former Women’s Singles CI Champion and whilst she was unable to clinch a 7th crown there, she was clinical in the Veterans Ladies Singles in the opening round of matches in the night. Her opponent was the unknown Anita Medvedovski, and she was in no mood to let the chance of a 9th title in this category slip away. She dispatched her opponent for the loss of just 8 points.

The final Guernsey winner was Keith Opie, who picked up his maiden Over 70’s Open Singles title. The GTTA Treasurer had lost to 10-time former Men’s Singles CI champion Frank Bougeard 4-1 when the pair met in the final of this event 2 years prior in Jersey, however Opie made no such mistake this time, with a comfortable straight sets win.

Despite no other CI titles being obtained by Sarnians, a number were involved in some close matches. Ogier and Jez Powell fought back well from 3-0 down against the strong combination of Mariusz Cieminski and Gregorz Frankowski in the Veterans Open Doubles, however the Polish stars comfortably navigated through the 6th end 11-3 to prevent the comeback.

Ogier had earlier been defeated by Frankowski in 5 sets in the Veterans Open Singles another well contested affair, with all sets being hard fought.

Chivers and Marli Barker came close to causing an upset in the Women’s Doubles against Jersey’s star player Hannah Silcock and her sister Kathryn. Chivers and Barker led 10-7 in the 6th end which would have sent the match to a 7th set decider, however the Silcock sisters did just enough to get over the line 14-12.

Mark Pipet was embroiled in an epic against long-term rival Eugene Ellis in the Over 60’s Open Singles. In a clash which saw 3 of the sets go beyond the 11-point distance, Ellis did just enough to clinch the 6th set 12-10, successfully concluding a 4-2 win, with him having come back from 2-1 down.

The inclusion of Jersey’s leading player, Luc Miller, proved pivotal to Jersey’s success in the Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles titles. Miller is a former Senior Home Nations Men’s Singles Champion from 2021 and is currently ranked in the top 50 in England. Alongside Silcock, they had too much for Dodd and Barker in the Mixed and won in straight sets, whilst alongside Leon Pierre in the Men’s Doubles, they defeated Dodd and Butler in straight sets.

There was a fantastic match in the Under 13 Open Singles between Luke Evans and Jonty Porter. The duo shared a few close tussles at the recent Primary Schools International, where Evans secured a bronze medal in the Boy’s Singles. On this occasion it was Jersey’s Porter that came out on top over 5 well contested sets. There were numerous lengthy rallies of a high quality displayed, with Porter fighting back from a deficit strongly in the 5th set to clinch it 12-10.

Inter-Insulars

The Inter-Insulars were a challenging affair for Guernsey, however despite this, 4 trophies made their way back to the Island after a gruelling day of action at Fort Regent. The outcome was a heavy 92-38 overall Aggregate success for Jersey, their largest in history, but still not as emphatic as Guernsey’s whopping 88-22 success from 2008, which remains the heaviest win in history.

The showpiece Green and Margaret Trophy encounters saw a historic first in that they were competed entirely across 2 tables.

Guernsey’s record in the Green since 2002 has been strong, with just 4 Jersey wins. Unfortunately, the hold on this trophy, which has been held by Guernsey since 2022 was broken in emphatic fashion after strong performances form the high-quality Jersey team.

Jersey had the luxury of fielding players in the form of Miller and Wheeler, as well as Leon Pierre, who has been competing at university and has seen his standard rise since last year.

Guernsey on the other hand fielded an unchanged side of Lawrence Stacey, Joshua Stacey, and Ryan Bichard, who had won 6-4 last year.

It was looking likely that this was going to see a first ever 10-0 whitewash for Jersey in the Green, however Josh came to the rescue at the very death. Trailing Wheeler 2-0 in the final match of the evening, he played some sensational table tennis to battle through as a victor. A see-saw 3rd set which saw match points come and go for the former Scottish International was eventually pinched 14-12 by Stacey. He followed this up well by edging a nervy 4th 11-9 to set up a mouth-watering finale. The final set was also laced with tension, with Stacey winning a number of points from the back of the court, with some excellent lobbed retrievals forcing some unexpected errors from Wheeler. An uncharacteristic fault serve from Wheeler at 9-9 gave Stacey his first match point. He was unable to take that opportunity, but he dusted himself off to take it 12-10, much to the delight and relief of the Guernsey contingent present.

Outside of that it was a dominant performance form Jersey, with only 2 other sets dropped. The doubles saw the Stacey twins fight back from 2-0 down against Miller and Wheeler to force a 4th set and they were unlucky not to force a decider, losing 15-13. Lawrence made a promising start against Pierre when he took the opener, however from there Pierre was a comfortable winner in 4 sets.

On the 2 adjacent tables, it was an opposite result, with Guernsey coming through as emphatic 9-1 winners. Jersey were always going to be the underdogs due to missing their leading player Hannah Silcock, who was successfully competing in the Butterfly Schools Individual Finals, where she comfortably won the Under 19 Girls title. This made it a much easier task for Guernsey to retain the complete dominance held in this event since 2000. Guernsey have won the title every year since 2000 apart from 5-5 draws, which was the outcome in 2001 and last year.

Kay Chivers and Shelby Timms were both in strong form, with each player unbeaten. Chivers defeated Ruby Devlin and Ella Devlin in straight sets, however she was pushed by a resistant Freya Allaway who fought back strongly from 2-0 down in their encounter to force a decider. Chivers held her nerve and came through 11-8 in this. Timms dropped the opener to Allaway, but after that ran out a comfortable winner in 4 sets, whilst she too dispatched both Ruby and Ella in straight sets. The duo also won the doubles rubber over Allaway and Ella in 4 close sets. Paula Le Ber added the remaining 2 rubbers, but did it the hard way in the match opener with Ruby. Having led 2-1, she lost the 4th 12-10 and found herself staring down the barrel in the 5th. She fought superbly to come back and seal it 13-11. She defeated Ella in 4 sets, but was defeated in straight sets by Freya, which prevented the whitewash.

Guernsey experienced strong success across the majority of Veterans categories, with 3 trophies coming back to the Island.

The biggest winners were the Over 60’s team of Mark Pipet, Kay Chivers and Craig Dunning. Pipet defeated Mick Michel, Tony Wood, and Martin Tupper, whilst Dunning and Chivers each dispatched Tupper and Michel. Pipet combined with Dunning to defeat Wood and Tupper in 4 sets in the doubles rubber. Wood was the player to prevent the whitewash as he beat Chivers in 4 sets and Dunning in straight sets.

The Over 70’s team of Brian Ferbrache, Keith Opie and Maurice James were not far behind and won 7-3. Ferbrache’s Inter-Insular bow was memorable as he was the only unbeaten player in the match. Each of his clashes was hard fought, however he edged past Paul Routier 11-9 in the 5th set of their encounter, Frank Bougeard 11-9 in the 5th set of their clash and Mike Sampson 11-4 in the deciding 5th end of their match. Opie and James defeated Routier and Sampson, but each lost to Bougeard, whilst Bougeard and Routier edged Opie and James 12-10 in the 5th set of their clash.

The Over 50’s team drew 5-5 in a result that keeps the trophy in Guernsey hands. It is however pertinent to note that Guernsey’s leading player Phil Ogier was a last-minute absentee due to unforeseen circumstances which was a large factor in Jersey being able to salvage a draw. Jez Powell and Nye Matthew were each in strong form during wins over Eugene Ellis and Tom Quinn, whilst the duo also teamed up to win an important doubles clash over Ellis and Ian Lambert in 4 sets. Lambert edged past Powell in 5 sets in the match opener, whilst he also defeated Matthew in straight sets. All Jersey players defeated Guernsey’s reserve Andy Gill in straight sets to secure the draw.

Despite Jersey winning the remaining team events, there were some good performances and victories obtained by Sarnian players.

The best of these wins came for Oskar Cleal in the Under 21, as he came back superbly from 2-0 down to overcome Jersey’s Division 1 Averages winner William Cornthwaite in 5 sets, 11-3 the score in the deciding end. Barnaby Groves defeated Callum Allaway in 5 sets in the Under 15, whilst Evans earned a nice 4 set win over Oscar Karwowski in the same fixture.