Leon Pierre wins Investec Division 2 Title
March 2017
The Investec Bank Division 2 title was played at the Geoff Reed Table Centre last night (results here) Thomas Cotilliard (14), who competed in the Senior Schools International in Limerick last year, knocked out old campaigner, Dave Hole, 3-2 in the quarter-finals in a closely fought match. In the semi-finals Cotillard pushed defending champion, Tony Wood, all the way, finally succumbing 3-1 and 15-13 in the fourth. In the other half of the draw Junior British League player and CI U13 champion, Alfie Sutherland, came up against 12 year Leon Pierre.
Always close rivals, it was to be Pierre's evening with his acute forehand and backhand angles and, making few errors, he clinched the match 3-0. Still fired up for the final, Pierre despatched Wood 3-1, capitalising on several critical unforced errors by Wood in the last 2 games.
Special mention should be made of 9 year old VCP student, John Le Fondre, who enthusiastically entered both Division 1 and 2 events. His large arsenal of serves, aggressive smashing and drop shot game surprised many of his opponents and he is definitely a player to watch for the future.
Secondary Schools Girls Tournament
March 2017
The JTTA held its second senior schools girls team tournament this season on Saturday with a straight head to head between 6 teams from Jersey College for Girls and Hautlieu School. Annie Hickling and Zara Packman scooped the winning trophies for the third time in a row for JCG. The hotly contested second place went to Hautlieu's Christina Loane and Lucy Hacker, who just pipped the JCG team of Natasha Baluchi and Lucy Howarth in the last game of the morning.
JTTA President, Audrey Tupper, was delighted with the competition.
"I'm passionate about getting girls playing and enjoying table tennis and there was plenty of talent on the tables. I was particularly impressed by eleven year old Pia Gurner from JCG. Irene Bree, our poster girl, presented the awards. She only started table tennis at this tournament in February last year but has trained with such focus that she is in our team for Gotland and she is a brilliant example to other girls.
Table tennis is now being played at lunchtime clubs at Jersey College for Girls and Beaulieu Convent and an after school club at Les Quennevais - the standard and numbers are only going one way - up!
Jersey Senior Schools Tournament
February 2017
The first senior school boys table tennis event was held at the Geoff Reed Table Tennis Centre. All but one of the Island’s schools were represented with a high standard of play, focus and enthusiasm from all players. Seasoned juniors from the Junior Academy were put to the test by new faces and talented players over 3 hours of nearly non-stop table tennis.
Eventually training and tournament experience shone through the marathon event with Victoria College clinching the winning and runners up trophies. The recently crowned Investec Bank CI Junior Top 12 winner, Luc Miller, and his partner Leon Pierre knocked last year’s Senior School International players, Tanguy Billet-Masters and Thomas Cotillard, into second slot.
Junior British League Team Win Silver
January 2017
The Jersey Academy table tennis team, sponsored by the One Foundation, travelled to Derby last weekend to compete in the second leg of the Junior British League. They were gunning for an improvement on their third position in Division 3 after their October weekend and with focussed, determined play coached by Martin and Max Tupper saw the team finish in second position winning silver medals for their trouble.
Their 4-2 victory over second placed Draycott proved pivotal, led by Luke Greenfield and Luc Miller comfortably winning all their matches 3-0. The other key match was against top of the table Fusion. Greenfield weathered a closely fought match against his Inter Insular rival, Ben Foss, winning 3-1 but Luc Miller agonisingly went down 11-9 in the deciding game against Ben Hee (England U13 no. 4). Greenfield restored the Jersey Academy honours in a brilliant 3-2 win over Hee and pulled the tie back to 2-2. However, David Quinn’s opponents proved too strong for him. Miller fought bravely to try and secure a draw for the Jersey Academy but he fell to top of the individual averages Chamika Weerasinghe (England no. 24 Cadet boys). Fusion’s 5 point lead at the top of the table was justified.
The Jersey Academy trounced Rotherham Scorpions 6-0 with Jacob Gosselin showing real grit to win both his matches. Wood Green only nicked one match against the Jersey Academy with a particularly impressive performance by David Quinn and the Jersey team drew against Joola Plymouth. Miller finished in second position in the overall individual averages of 23 players, closely followed by Greenfield in fourth slot.
Martin Tupper said “I was very pleased that we improved our position from the first leg to being runners-up, which was a terrific achievement by the lads. Both Luke and Luc showed that they can compete with credit at national level.David and Jacob gained invaluable experience for competitions such as the Inter Insulars & Senior Schools International in Jersey later this year”.
Girls Secondary Schools Championships
November 2016
Our Secondary Schools Team Championship this time had 22 competitors from 5 different schools and making up 11 teams. The winners were JCG 1, Natasha Baluchi and Annie Hickling, meaning JCG retained the title from February 2016.
States Members Tournament
March 2017
The Jersey Table Tennis Association paid host to a group of States Members for a social evening last week. The initiative was jointly organised by seasoned player, Senator Paul Routier, and President, Audrey Tupper and took the form of a round robin competition, which was won by Senator Alan Maclean with Deputy Steve Luce as runner-up. 
Audrey said, “We are determined to keep pushing out table tennis to the Island community and where better to start in January than with States Members!"
Senator Routier said "the competition was intense and although I was disqualified for using my own bat I know that all members enjoyed the opportunity to play table tennis." For the results look here
Jersey Academy success in the British League
October 2016
Following promotion in their very first season in the tough Junior British National League (JBL), the Jersey Academy team travelled to Derby Arena to compete against top UK Clubs and UK U18 ranked players in Division 3A,. This season’s team of Luke Greenfield (17), Luc Miller (14), David Quinn (13) with new up and coming U13 C.I. Champion Alfie Sutherland (12) now see if they can step it up in this higher British League Division.
On Saturday 22 October their first fixture was JOOLA PLYMOUTH A. MILLER UK ranked 105 was up first against much higher UK ranked No. 68. MILLER managed to win to give JERSEY the perfect start. GREENFIELD UK ranked 89 was up next and showed again he can perform strongly on a national stage winning 3-0 against UK Ranked No. 78 Daniel KERR. The momentum was with Jersey and QUINN up next did not disappoint, gaining an excellent win over No. 103 Leon ZACHARKIW in 3 straight games. Final score - JERSEY ACADEMY 4 JOOLA PLYMOUTH A 2.
The next fixture was Chesterfield’s XLNT DRAYCOTT 2 who have strong England and Scottish International players in their ranks Naphong BOONYAPRAPA is UK Ranked No. 2 under 11 and UK No. 11 under 15 age category and Scotland’s top junior Martin JOHNSON is UK No. 16 under 15 age category. GREENFIELD gave Jersey Academy a good start winning the first match 3-1 over UK No. 94 Jack FINNEY. MILLER then had an excellent win against Scotland’s JOHNSON after being 2-1 down and came through with some excellent forehand loop attacks 11-8, 11-8. Final score - XLNT DRAYCOTT 4 JERSEY ACADEMY 2.
Last match of the day was London FUSION TTC 2. MILLER gave Jersey a good start winning 3-2 against a player from Singapore Benjamin HEE UK ranked No.52. But the long day was taking its toll and Jersey Academy lost the next two matches. After a motivational talk from Hugo Tupper the Jersey team put things into perspective and GREENFIELD went out to give Jersey Academy a win back to even the score at 2-2. In the end it was a respectable draw 3-3 against this top London Club.
On Sunday 23 October Jersey Academy needed two wins to keep their hopes alive of winning the Division. Making his JBL debut newcomer Alfie SUTHERLAND faced Alex SELWAY. SUTHERLAND getting his timing wrong dropped the first two games 11-6, 11-9 but then came back showing great character and determination winning 11-6, 12-10 and 11-7. GREENFIELD and MILLER showed their calibre winning both their singles and SUTHERLAND just lost his second closely 3-1 but Jersey came away victors. Final score - JERSEY ACADEMY 5 ROTHERHAM SCORPIONS 1. Final match of weekend 1 was WOOD GREEN from Wolverhampton. Again the Jersey Academy did not disappoint. GREENFIELD and MILLER both again clinched 2 matches each and David QUINN added a good win to bring home another convincing victory. Final score - JERSEY ACADEMY 5 WOOD GREEN 1. This meant Jersey Academy at the half way point of fixtures are only 2 points off the TOP OF THE TABLE in Division 3A and have great chances for promotion.
Secondary Schools 2016
T
he young table tennis team of Luc Miller, David Quinn, Tanguy Billet-Masters and Thomas Cotillard competed in the U14's age group of the Secondary Schools International competition in Limerick, Ireland with winning Junior British League players Miller and Quinn in Team A and newcomers Cotillard and Billet-Masters in Team B . In the group matches Team A opened their account by beating last month's inter-insular rivals Guernsey 4-1. Next up was the more experienced England B side which went down to the wire. Miller, having beaten their No.2 3-1, was trailing 0-2 against their No.1 but, unfazed by the large crowds attending the event, he stormed back to clinch the match 3-2 to tie the rubber 2-2. However, Quinn was not quite strong enough to get the team over the line with his second singles match, and they lost 3-2. Undaunted, Jersey A went on to beat a focused Ireland B 3-2 and the Isle of Man B 5-0 but fell to a very determined Scotland A team 4-1. Miller & Quinn then progressed to the play offs for 5th/6th position and agonisingly lost out to Scotland B 3-2 but finished in a creditable 6th position. Miller was the undoubted star turn for Team Jersey. In the team event he won an astonishing 11 out of his 12 singles matches, only losing to the Scotland No.1, Dylan Curry, who was the eventual tournament singles winner. This was the best performance for a Jersey player in this competition for many years. Chris Morshead, Team A coach, said "Luc showed that he can compete with the very best of the U14 players on the international stage and he can only go from strength to strength from here. I was really pleased with David too, who is a year young for his age group and, although he found the going tough, he gained valuable experience and he knows what to expect next year". Team B coach Martin Tupper commented, "competing in their first international event Thomas and Tanguy showed real courage and self-belief. They gained terrific experience and chalking up a win against the Isle of Man B in their final match of the competition showed them they can do it." Miller's winning form continued in Sunday's individual event. At the group stage finding himself 0-2 down against the Irish No.1, Conor Nugent, Millerdug deep to win 3-2, (11-7 in the deciding game). However, there was no juice left in Miller's tank for his encounter with the Irish No.2, Art McLaughlin and he went down 0-3, but he should be very satisfied with his overall performance for the weekend.
Quinn played his best table tennis of the weekend on the Sunday and at the knock out stage he recovered from being 0-2 down against Guernsey player Ellis Tomlinson to win 13-11 in the fifth, only to be dispatched by the Welsh No.1 in the next round.
Season 2016/2017 News
Nat West Island Games in Gotland
June 2017
Team Jersey
For the 2015 games in Jersey, there is a youtube video of table tennis play here
Investec CI Singles and Doubles
May 2017
The Investec CI Individual and Doubles Finals took place on Friday 5 May at the Geoff Reed Table Tennis Centre where Jersey won the U11, U13, U15Boys and U21 CI titles.
Jersey's outstanding performer on the night was LUC MILLER (15), whose evening campaign started with dispatching Luke Bichard in the U15 for the loss of only 11 points in 4 games. Miller's trophy collection was temporarily halted by his old rival, Ben Foss in the U18 Boys, and he frustratingly succumbed 0-4 despite deploying all the shots in his armoury. One of the best matches of the night was MILLER's U21 encounter against LAWRENCE STACEY, Guernsey's Green Player. Both power hitters, they traded shot for shot until they tied 3-3 in games and 7-7 when MILLER finally pulled away to take the match 11-7. Teaming up with LUKE GREENFIELD in the Junior Doubles MILLER took the title 4-0 against Foss and Bichard.
Another notable success for Jersey was promising 8 year old TAYLOR ROCHE, taking the U11 title against ZAHEER ANEES 4-1. After pegging the score at 1-1 ROCHE clinched the match comfortably 4-1 using his forehand topspins to great effect, for which ANEES had no answer.
LEON PIERRE won the U13 title, proving too strong for Caden Brouard and dropping only 16 points in the whole match.
Jersey Green Team player MARIUSZ CIEMINSKI romped to a 4-0 victory over Paul Hainsworth in the Restricted Singles (21-40 years) with Hainsworth never getting to grips with CIEMINSKI's style blocking on the backhand and counter-attacking on the forehand.
CIEMINSKI teamed up with TYLER GOSSELIN in the Men's Doubles and, despite pulling back to 2-3 in games from being 3-0 down, they lost out 2-4 on the night to the experienced Island Games pairing of Gary Dodd and Josh Butler.
2017 was not to be the year for evergreen EUGENE (YOGI) ELLIS who was disappointed to pick up the runner-up trophy for the Veterans, O50s Singles and Veterans Doubles.
Another agonisingly close match was DAVID HOLE in the O70s, just losing out to Ian Fitchet 11-9 in the 7th game.
Playing in her first Inter Insular Jersey's IRENE BREE (16) found the going tough in the Women's and U18 Girls Singles losing both 4-0. Partnering TYLER GOSSELIN in the Mixed Doubles they lost out to the more experienced Guernsey players of Adam Langois and Alice Loveridge who made a cameo appearance over the weekend and it was good to see her back on the table tennis scene.
Jersey's JOSH BAND found Gary Dodd much too strong for him on the night in the Men's Singles, going down 4-0 without ever really getting into the match.
Jersey's KAREN BOCKELMAN-GOODALL played in the Veteran Women's singles against experienced Kay Chivers succumbing 4-0 and again teamed up with MEENA PERCHARD in the Women's Doubles finding the going equally tough, again losing 4-0 to Kay Chivers and Dawn Morgan.
Score cards and trophy winners here
Jersey Closed
April 2017
The Island Championships sponsored by Investec Bank took place at the GRTTC on Saturday 29 April. The coveted Men's title lived up to its billing and was too close to call for a favourite. Mariusz Cieminski surged into a 3-1 lead before Gotland-bound Josh Band found his range with his backhand flick and then opened up powerfully on his forehand to draw level 3-3. All bets were off in the final game, matching point for point up to 6-6 before, with the ribbon in sight, Band pulled away to win it 11-7 and clinched his first Men's title. Cieminski, however, left with the Restricted Singles trophy over Mario Martinka and the Men's Doubles partnering Jersey 2015 Island Games player, Tyler Gosselin in a riveting 4-1 victory over Luc Miller and Band.
Island Games competitor and Junior CI Top 12 winner, Luc Miller continued this season's excellent form by convincingly winning a trio of Island titles all 4-0: U21 over Tyler Gosselin, U18 against Leon Pierre and fellow Junior British League player David Quinn in the U15. Miller will also be busy at the Investec Bank CI Finals on Friday 5 May as he competes in the Junior Doubles with Luke Greenfield, following a walkover against Quinn and Jacob Gosselin.
Division 2 winner Leon Pierre proved too strong for Max Roche on the day in the U13 event winning 4-0 but Roche's recent performance at the Nottingham 1* Open showed that he is another talented player to watch for the future.
After convalescing last year from surgery, evergreen Eugene Ellis was back in contention and notched up the O40s and O50s singles titles against Bruce Gallichan and also the Veterans Doubles partnered by Kevin Allen over Gallichan and Terry Boucher.
The closest match of the day was in the O70s where Malcolm Gallichan battled it out with Dave Hole. After a gruelling 6 games, Hole pipped Gallichan 12-10 in the 7th leaving both players exhausted with their endeavours. Hole's resources were unable to deal with Bruce Gallichan's heavy variations on spin in the O60s, going down 4-0.
Island Games player, Irene Bree's (16) meteoric improvement saw her edge out Karen Bockelmann-Goodall in the Women's final, becoming the youngest Women's Island champion for many years. She added this scalp to the U18 title against newcomer Annie Hickling as well as the Mixed Doubles trophy with Tyler Gosselin over John Barden and Eileen Lucas. However, in the Women's Doubles the new pairing of Bocklemann-Goodall and Meena Perchard proved too strong for Bree and Lucas in a closely fought match, coming out winners 4-2. Bockelmann-Goodall also lifted the Veteran Ladies trophy in a one-sided match against Audrey Tupper.
In the U15 girls Hickling beat Liliana Andrade (9) 4-3 in a closely fought contest with both girls playing at top of their game. One of the best matches of the day was the U11s between Taylor Roche and John Le Fondre. Taylor's 3-0 lead was brought to an abrupt halt as Le Fondre dug deep and fought back to 3-2 with his heavy backspin shots. In the final game Roche opened up with his forehand topspins and scooped the U11 title to complement his U9 unopposed trophy.
The Lt Governor, Sir Stephen Dalton, patron of the JTTA presented the trophies after the morning sessions and commented on how well the U11 boys had handled the pressure of competing. Audrey Tupper, President - JTTA, said, "it is particularly special that we can field an U18 girls team against Guernsey next year after a 4 year break and the standard of girls is going from strength to strength once more. We're looking to give Guernsey a real run for their money next weekend in the Inter Insular individual and team events".
All results available here
Jersey Open
April 2017
Former UK champion Chris Doran regained the Jersey Table Tennis Open title on Sunday - extending Darius Knight's longstanding run of finishing second best.
Doran, a three-time winner between 2012-14 beat fellow international Knight 11-8, 12-14, 11-9, 11-9 at the Geoff Reed Table Tennis Centre after cruising through the early rounds. Knight has now ended the Easter three-day event as runner-up on five separate occasions (2012-2013, 2015-2017).
Amelia Chan, who topped her group earlier in the day, came from 0-2 down to beat top seed Nicole Bird in the women's final (8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-7) but finished behind Bhavika Mistry in the U21 women's round-robin.
Jersey's presence in the men's draw ended at the quarter-final stage, when fourth seed Chris Morshead was toppled by Ireland's Rory Scott, although there was a strong showing in the knockout rounds, with Luke Greenfield, Jack Mills, Luc Miller and Tyler Gosselin all making it past the group stage.
In the men's U21 singles, which was without top see Morshead due to injury, Miller stormed back from 0-2 down against Guernsey's Josh Stacey - relying on a number of looped winners in the final to grind out a result.
Mario Martinka exacted revenge on Devon's Jon Cheung in the restricted singles semi-finals - having lost 2-3 in the main draw on Sunday morning - but was outplayed in a powerful final by Northampton's Dan Smalley.
Top seed Martin Gunn (Avon) ensured the veteran's singles draw would hold true to form - claiming the crown after seeing off the challenge of Jody Bevington.
There were home wins for Morshead (men's band 2) and Jacob Gosselin (men's band 5) in Saturday's banded singles events - the latter after beating Richard Oppenheim 11-9 in the fourth - and Friday's opening fixtures provided a men's team triumph for Morshead and Tyler Gosselin as the duo beat Guernsey twins Josh and Lawrence Stacey 3-1 in the final. The Sarnian double had earlier got the better of semi-final hopeful Luc Miller (Jersey) and Bogdan Capusa (Nottingham) while Morshead and Gosselin saw off Rory Scott (Ireland) and Shaun Parsley (Sussex).
In the women's team event the Northampton pairing of Nicole Bird and Bhavika Mistry finished on top, while in the veteran team draw Martin Gunn (Avon) and Vidal Graham (Northampton) won the decider against top seeds Scott and Parsley.
Jersey's second seeds Luke Greenfield and Luc Miller were beaten in the final of the junior team event by top seeds Louis Price (Avon) and David Gofton (Cleveland).
JTTA Easter Open - event winners:
Team event: Men's Chris Morshead/Tyler Gosselin (Jersey), Women's: Nicole Bird/Bhavika Mistry, Veterans: Martin Gunn/Vidal Graham, Junior: Louis Price/David Gofto
Banded singles: M2: Chris Morshead (Jersey), M3: Louis Price, M4: Josh Stacey (Guernsey), M5: Jacob Gosselin (Jersey), M6: Richard Oppenheim. W2: Sabina Devereux, W3: Bhavika Mistry, W4: Georgina Lister
Open Singles: Men: Chris Doran, Women: Amelia Chan, Veteran's Martin Gunn, Restricted: Dan Smalley, Men's U21: Luc Miller, Women's U21 Bhavika Mistry
Nottingham Tournament
March 2017
This weekend the JTTA took a group of juniors, sponsored by Appleby, to compete in the Nottingham Sycamore 1* tournament at Carlton Le Willows Academy, a purpose built international standard table tennis facility. Liliana Andrade (9), who first started playing in the Girls for Gold programme, won the Girls U11 title, competing in a round robin of 4 girls.
After winning her first 2 matches comfortably 3-0, she found the going tough in her third match but dug deep to close out 11-9 in the fifth to take the title. Max Roche (12) was the stand-out Jersey boy player of the weekend, clinching the Consolation Cadet Boys. He also reached the semi-final of the U13 Boys after winning 3-2 (11-9 in the fifth) in a pulsating quarter final, leaving his opponent in tears.
Taylor Roche (8), was on top form with his forehand drives and played with passion in the U11 Boys Singles. He got through the group stages winning 2 out of his 3 matches and agonisingly lost his third match 12-10 in the fifth. Taylor was knocked out in the quarter finals by an older player, valiantly going down in 3 close games. CI U13 Champion and Junior British League player, Alfie Sutherland (13) reached the quarter finals of the Cadet Boys Singles but went down 3-0 to a player using unfamiliar long pimples on the backhand. However, Alfie moved up the gears and pocketed the Boys Consolation event comfortably.
Noah Risby (13), who competed in the Primary Schools International last Easter, won the Consolation U13 boys beating fellow Jersey junior, Declan Roche (13) 3-0 in an all-Jersey final, with both players putting in a cracking performance. Both Noah and Declan had very close games throughout the tournament. As there was no junior girls event for Gotland bound Irene Bree (16), she competed in the Junior Boys singles, finding the going tough against some strong opposition. However, Irene was delighted to win her first match in the Boys Consolation 3-2 in a nerve-biting encounter and then went on to narrowly lose in the semi-finals but she gained valuable experience for the Inter Insulars in May and and Island Games.
Deploying his large arsenal of spin serves, John Le Fondre (9) scooped the Boys U11 Boys consolation event (3-1). Martin Tupper, head coach on the trip with Tyler Gosselin and Max Tupper said, "this was the first trip I can remember taking such very young players competing in the UK. They all played really well with six of the eight returning with trophies or medals, which is a terrific performance for players so young! Thank you to the parents who came and supported the trip.
For more pictures see the latest gallery
Investec Championship Division 1
March 2017
The Investec Bank 1st Division Championships (results here) were contested last night at the Geoff Reed Table Tennis Centre. As expected, the semi-finals were between Junior British League team players Luke Greenfield and Luc Miller, and Tyler Gosselin and Mariusz Cieminski, all contesting for places in the men's team (Green Trophy) at the Inter Insulars in early May. 
Greenfield's silky controlled hand skills and exquisite touch took him to a 2-0 lead and he was up in the third before Miller moved into top gear, firing forehand and backhand winners from all corners of the table. The players traded shot for shot in some hard-hitting rallies but Miller just had the edge, bagging the next two games 11-9 to level the match at 2-2. Miller took a lead in the final game but, just as it appeared all over for Greenfield, Miller made 3 or 4 unforced errors as he was obviously feeling the pressure. Greenfield reclaimed the challenge bringing the game back to 10-10.
Then he agonisingly let 3 match points slip through his fingers before Miller delivered the final blow for a 16-14 win in a truly breathtaking and thoroughly entertaining match with table tennis at its very best.
The other semi-final was no less exciting with Gosselin taking a 2-1 lead against the defensive counterattacking play of Cieminski. But Cieminski was not going to be denied a finalist's place and he dug deep to close out the match at 3-2.
In the final Miller had too much fire power for Cieminski, who rolled out all his defensive trickery but, on the night, Miller was unstoppable.
Kevin Allen, Branch Manager of sponsor, Investec Bank, observed that it had been an entertaining evening as both semi-finalists had come from behind to reach the final. "Going by the standard of the play, the JTTA is in rude health and, with another two months before the Inter Insulars, there's still time to push the standard higher".
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