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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 three 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 it 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 three golds, including singles glory for Morgan.
Morgan and Chivers were again the leading lights this time around as they collected a further two gold medals.
Morgan and Chivers were touted as favourites in the Over 60’s Ladies Doubles and in the end, they cruised to victory across their four matches within the Round Robin format.
Success was achieved without dropping a set, however they were pushed to two close sets by the English pairing of Debby Auvache and Christine Wickes. Both were claimed 12-10.
It was Morgan who wrapped up proceedings from a medal perspective as she battled her way to gold in the Over 60’s Ladies Singles.
Morgan’s toughest test was 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 two for the loss of just seven points.
Greene bounced back well to take the 4th 11-7, which led to a nervy final set where Greene saved two match points from 8-10 to restore 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, 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 in pole position to medal following Friday’s long day of action, as they had won all four 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 Friday and was unbeaten. Here he saw off Colin Green in four sets and Greig McDonell in straight sets. Powell edged the vital thirdrubber after he fought back from 2-1 down to oust McDonell 12-10 in the deciding end. The Guernsey side narrowly lost the other two matches in this encounter over five sets.
Guernsey’s first match on Saturday was with Wales and the side knew that a win would guarantee a silver 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 four. 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 two singles matches as alongside Juliette Yeaman in the Over 50’s Women’s they were unlucky to lose three of their four 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 four 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 five sets in this encounter, while the duo also fell in five 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 fourth 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 four sets to Venner. Nye Matthew went one better as he firstly qualified from his group with a super five set win over Farrow from Wales. He followed on with another strong victory in four sets over McDonell from Scotland. He too then came up against Venner and despite playing well, was defeated in straight sets.
Wilcocks 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.
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