Veterans Home Countries 2024

Guernsey hosted the Veterans Home Countries tournament on 13th - 15th September 2024.

www.sixnationsveteranstabletennis.co.uk

Results   |   Photos   |   Live Streaming

Historical Roll of Honour

Thanks to the many volunteers who combined to make the weekend a success:

Chief organiser: Lionel Jones

Referee & results: Ben Foote, Paul Hainsworth

Hall & logistics: Becks O'Keefe, Maurice James, Derek Webb, Jake Webb

Streaming: Albie Lihou, Micah Cohen

Photos: Peter Vivian, Mark Windsor, Tim Le Page

Kitchen team: Stacey Bretel, Isla Bretel, Rosemary Powell, Karen Brouard, Katey Collenette, Emma Sparks, Jan Priest, Zoe Tester, Lynda & George from Isle of Man

HOME COUNTRIES VETERANS

ROLL OF HONOUR – GUERNSEY 2024

Event Report

A busy weekend of table tennis action at the GTTA centre from the 26th staging of the Veterans Home Nations event proved to be one of the best yet for Sarnian players, with 3 medals obtained across the range of categories.

Guernsey have struggled to get in and amongst the medals at this event due to the high standards and the last time the event was hosted locally in 2017 saw the only gold medals in history, when Dawn Morgan and Kay Chivers romped through the Over 50’s Women’s categories with 3 golds, including Singles glory for Morgan.

Morgan and Chivers were once more the leading lights in the event as they collected a further 2 gold medals to cap off a successful weekend of action at the superbly hosted event. They were touted as possible gold medallists in the Over 60’s Ladies Doubles category and in the end, they cruised to victory across their 4 matches within the Round Robin format. Success was achieved without dropping a set, however they were pushed to 2 close sets by the English pairing of Debby Auvache and Christine Wickes, but both were claimed 12-10 to enable them to emerge as victors.

It was Morgan who wrapped up proceedings from a medal perspective as she battled her way to the gold medal in the Over 60’s Ladies Singles event. Morgan’s toughest test lie in the semi-finals where she was up against the Irish star Geraldine Greene. Morgan dropped the opening set 11-9 before storming through the next 2 sets for the loss of just 7 points. Greene bounced back well to take the 4 th 11-7 which led to a nervy final set where Greene fantastically saved 2 match points from 8-10 torestore parity at 10-10. A long pushed ball off the end enabled Morgan to seal it on the following point with a strong forehand smash.

She met Auvache in the final and having dispatched her 3-1 during the initial group stages of the event, would have fancied her changes. She went one better in the final as she won in straight sets to the delight of those in attendance.

The other success came the prior day, upon culmination of the team event phase of the competition. Guernsey’s Over 50 Men’s A team of Phil Ogier, Jez Powell and Nye Matthew had put themselves inpole position to medal following Friday’s long day of action, as they had won all 4 of their matches. All individuals had contributed to these results, but the toughest clash came against Scotland, where a narrow 3-2 win was obtained. Phil Ogier showed super form throughout the matches on Friday andwas unbeaten. Here he saw off Colin Green in 4 sets and Greig McDonell in straight sets. Powell edged the vital 3rd rubber after he fought back from 2-1 down to oust McDonell 12-10 in the deciding end. The Guernsey side narrowly lost the other 2 matches in this encounter over 5 sets.

Guernsey’s first match on Saturday was with Wales and the side knew that a win would guarantee a silver medal at least, heading into the final group match against England. Ogier continued his strong form by beating Bryan Fernandes in straight sets and Mark Farrow in 4. The doubles proved to be the key encounter and Ogier and Matthew played some excellent stuff to overcome the tricky combination of Fernandes and Farrow in straight sets.

Unfortunately, the gold medal was a step too far as the high quality combination of England number 9 Veteran Ritchie Venner and Darren Griffin romped to a 5-0 win. In the other categories Morgan lost just 2 singles matches as alongside Juliette Yeaman in the Over 50’s Women’s they were unlucky to lose 3 of their 4 matches narrowly 3-2.

Jamie Ferbrache and Steve Ozanne battled valiantly in the very strong over 40’s Men’s event and put in some respectable performances, culminating in each earning victories over Neil Cox from Wales, in straight and 4 sets, respectively. They were hugely unlucky not to pick up a team win as their  encounter with Scotland could have gone either way, despite the 5-0 defeat. They were both edged by Keith Dingwall in 5 sets in this encounter, whilst the duo also fell in 5 sets in the doubles rubber against Dingwall and Marek Domagala.

The B team in the Over 50’s Men’s of Andy Gill, Ian Le Page and Peter Vivian earned a strong 5-0 win against the Isle of Man and Andy Gill also picked up a singles win over David Lloyd from Wales. The Over 60’s mixed team of Craig Dunning, Kay Chivers and Tim Le Page earned 5-2 wins over both Jersey and Isle of Man, whilst the Over 70’s team of Gary Wilcocks and Terry Trustum combined to beat Jersey 4-1 as well as earning a good 3-2 win over Wales.

Finally, the Over 75’s team of Maurice James and Keith Opie earned a hard fought 3-2 win over Scotland, to finish 4th overall. Despite no other medals, there was some strong success in the individual events for other Guernsey players Ogier and Powell were unlucky to miss out in the semi finals of the Over 50’s Men’s Doubles to Colin Greene and Brian Wright from Scotland. They led the deciding end 5-2 before being clawed back in an eventual 11-8 defeat.

Ogier also made the Quarter finals of the Over 50’s Men’s Singles where he gave a strong account of himself, despite losing in 4 sets to Venner. Nye Matthew went one better as he firstly qualified from his group with a super 5 set win over Farrow from Wales. He followed on with another strong victory in 4 sets over McDonell from Scotland. He too then came up against Venner and despite playing well, was defeated in straight sets.

Willcocks made his way to the semi final of the Over 70’s Men’s singles, but was outclassed in straight sets by the eventual winner, England’s Phil Bowen.

Event Preview

The Guernsey Table Tennis Association is playing host to the 26th Home Countries Veterans Table Tennis Championships at the weekend.

The GTTA is known for its strong organisational skills and has successfully hosted this busy event on 3 occasions in the past, most recently in 2017. It is indeed a busy event as it sees the leading Veteran players from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Jersey, and Isle of Man joining the Sarnians in action across 5 age categories, ranging from Over 40’s all the way to Over 75’s.

The standard is usually extremely high, particularly in the Over 40’s where historically a number of former high quality senior players have competed. Former internationals for their countries to be on the roll of honours as former Over 40’s Men’s or Women’s Champions include 12-time Welsh Men’s National Champion Ryan Jenkins and 8-time Irish National Champion Colum Slevin as well as England’s Nigel Eckersley, Scotland’s Richard Yule, and Wales’s Regina Donovan, to name just a few.

Owing to the strong standards, the Sarnians have found it a difficult challenge to pick up spoils, however it was at the event hosted in 2017 that saw the only gold medals obtained by local players. Dawn Morgan and Kay Chivers excelled in the Over 50 Women’s category and took team gold as well as the Doubles crown. Morgan made it a clean sweep by clinching the Over 50 Women’s Singles thanks to a victory over a 3-time former Over 40’s Women’s Singles champion at this very event, England’s Sue Collier.

Onwards to 2024 and both Morgan and Chivers form part of an 18-strong Sarnian line-up all hoping to taste success over the packed scheduled across the 3 days of action at the GTTA centre based at Hougue Du Pommier. The action comprises team events across all 5 age categories, plus singles and doubles competitions for each. The action in the team event will take place on Friday and Saturday morning, followed by the Doubles events on Saturday afternoon and the Singles events on Sunday.

Morgan is competing once more in the Over 50 Women’s alongside Juliette Yeaman, whilst Chivers is competing in the mixed Over 60’s event alongside Craig Dunning and Tim Le Page. The duo are however competing together in the Over 60’s Women’s Doubles and will be in with a good chance of emulating their success from 7 years prior, albeit in the next age category up.

The Over 40’s once more looks strong and local Division 1 players Jamie Ferbrache and Steve Ozanne, who each competed in the Over 40’s Inter-Insular against Jersey earlier this year, are expected to face some challenging opposition. England look particularly strong and have the currently ranked numbers 5 and 7 Veteran Men in their line-up, in the form of Jason Ramage and Andrew Wilkinson, winners of the Over 40 Men’s Singles events in 2022 and 2019, respectively.

Wales have former Teesport manager Michael Marsden in their line-up. Marsden was a gold medallist in the Veteran’s Men’s Doubles at the World Veterans Championships last year, alongside the German Gregor Clemens Foerster.

Across the water Jersey have selected a strong side for the event, comprising of former Green Trophy representative Mariusz Cieminski and Gregorz Frankowski.

Phil Ogier is the most decorated male within the Guernsey contingent, as he is a 7-time Island Men’s Singles champion. He is competing in the Over 50’s alongside Jez Powell and Nye Matthew. Guernsey has a B side in this event which is made up of Andy Gill, Ian Le Page, and Peter Vivian. England once more look strong in this category with Darren Griffin and the 12th ranked Vet in England, Ritchie Venner, a former Over 40’s Men’s Singles champion and 3-time Over 40’s Men’s Doubles champion at this event.

Gary Willcocks is the next most decorated male player in Guernsey’s line-up as the 4-time former Men’s Singles champion is competing alongside St Pauls team-mate Terry Trustum in the Over 70’s event.

Finally, the line-up is completed by Keith Opie, Maurice James, and Ken Falla, who make-up the Over 75’s trio. Opie and James picked up a silver medal in the team event last year in Ireland and the team will be hoping to go one better this time around.

The competitive but friendly event contains a Presentation Dinner at St Pierre Park on the Saturday evening.

The event is expected to be live streamed directly on YouTube via the GTTA channel, however entry is free to spectators who want to catch any of the action in person.