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It was an impressive start as Guernsey competed in the Veterans British Club League for the first time.
The competition is fierce, with action taking place across six Divisions, with 10 separate leagues in operation. This all equates to 64 teams competing.
Having not played before, the Sarnians found themselves at the bottom of the pyramid in Division 5 (Group 2) as the action took place at Draycott and Long Eaton Table Tennis Club in the East Midlands.
They ended the weekend unbeaten and top of the table, two points clear.
Guernsey sent a larger squad of four to spread the load of the busy weekend of action.
Phil Ogier, Jamie Ferbrache, Steve Ozanne, and Nye Matthew all excelled, everyone winning at least half of their matches, including an unbeaten eight 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 of 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 four sets in the match opener and followed up with a four-set win over Chris Pullinger. Ogier beat Faldie Adams in four sets in his other match, while 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 took Ozanne in four sets in the final match of the clash.
Next saw another 5-1 victory, this time against Dyflin. Matthew made his debut and defeated David Gibbons in four sets, before he recovered from a 2-1 deficit to earn a gritty five 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 four 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 four matches going the full five 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 five 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 five-set win over Gary Pells. Ferbrache narrowly lost out in five 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.
Sitting pretty heading into the two fixtures on Sunday, a tough test lay ahead against the closest rivals for the title and venue hosts, Draycott 4. The return of Ogier was crucial to the result. His first win came against Allan Lumpod in straight sets, before he navigated past the tricky Tony Smith in five sets. Matthew was the player to pick up the pivotal third rubber as he defeated Malcolm Truman in four sets. The fixture saw the other three 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 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 four-set win over Lichao Geng and a five-set win over Summers where he won the decisive end 12-10. Ferbrache closed proceedings on the weekend with a four-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 22 and 23 February next year to conclude their debut campaign.
Pictured top: Phil Ogier.
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