Green Trophy regained in overwhelming victory

GUERNSEY went on the rampage in Jersey at the weekend to seal eight of the 10 team events, including the prestigious Green Trophy. The teams drew the under-17 girls' event and lost only the under-13 boys'.

There had been a shaky start to the inter-insular weekend when Jersey won 10 of the 18 individual titles on offer, including the men's and women's singles.

Peter Bretel won the man-of-the-match award, though it could equally have gone to Lucas Waring who produced an outstanding display of table tennis, the only member of the team to win all three games.

But this was a team effort. Waring opened the match with a win over David Cronin who had not lost a game all season in Jersey's top division.

This was followed by a comfortable victory for island champion Phil Ogier over the veteran Bruce Gallichan.

Bretel lost in a tight match against Channel Islands champion Eugene Ellis which took the match score to 2-1; then Ogier beat Cronin comfortably in straight sets.

Waring put Guersey in the driving seat with a fine win over champion Ellis.

Team captain Mark Pipet's decision to play Ogier and Waring in the doubles, which could have been crucial, instead of island champions Ogier and Bretel almost paid dividends, the pair narrowly losing in a five-set battle.

That made the match score 4-2.

Bretel put in a confident performance to beat Gallichan in three straight.

Guernsey now had one hand on the trophy at 5-2 up.

Island number one Phil Ogier hoped to avenge the defeat against Ellis to get both hands on the trophy that Guernsey has not won since 1996. But he failed to do so, losing 3-1.

Ogier was upset, along with the 60 Guernsey supporters, who began to think back to 2002 when Guernsey led 5-3 only to draw the match 5-5.

Ogier could only watch and hope either Bretel or Waring could finish the job.

Bretel, who last year had the opportunity to win the trophy in the final game but failed to produce the goods on that occasion, found himself 2-0 down to Cronin.

Captain Pipet used the break between games to maximum benefit to re-focus Bretel with a game plan which was put into good effect.

Bretel won the next two sets and must have felt confident going into the decider.

Cronin had other ideas and soon got himself into a commanding position, leading 8-3.

The supporters were subdued and must have been pinning their hopes on Waring to beat Gallichan in the final game.

Bretel had other ideas.

The concentration level was back to its highest and he played himself back into the game with some outrageous shots to level the game to 8-8.

The supporters were on the edge of their seat and Cronin must have wondered what was happening.

Bretel, arguably the best server of the ball in Guernsey table tennis, was in pole position.

But obviously no one had told Cronin this and the Jerseyman attacked both serves to win the next two points to lead 10-8.

The Jersey supporters were now behind Cronin again and a Caesarean victory looked inevitable as Cronin was now serving to win the game.

Bretel stared at his opponent, fully focused.

The atmosphere was amazing as both sets of supporters were giving their players strong vocal backing.

Bretel amazingly took the next two points to put the game on a knife edge.

He showed he could handle the pressure by taking the next two points to win the match and send the Guernsey crowd and his teammates ecstatic.

The inspirational Waring , in brilliant form all night, finished off a defiant Gallichan to record a memorable hat-trick as Guernsey took the match 7-3.

In the morning games, the under-11s' open team won 6-4 and the under-15 boys, 7-3, the under-15 girls drew 5-5, the under-21 open was won 7-3 and the veterans 8-2 to go into the afternoon session leading the aggregate 33-17.

After the break, Guernsey's only defeat came in the under-13 open - 3-7.

The under-17 boys won 6-4 after being 4-2 down, with a fine victory for Sam Perry over Andrew Gallichan to turn the game around.

The super-veterans won 7-3 and the women also picked up their match, 7-3.

Guernsey had retained the aggregate trophy, leading 56-34 before the Green match.

The overall aggregate was 66-37, a great weekend for Guernsey's fastest-growing sport.