British schools title for top prospect Alice

ALICE LOVERIDGE, 10, has become the British Primary Schools champion. And, to top off a superb weekend for Guernsey in Cardiff, the boys team claimed a silver medal while Oliver Langlois won an individual bronze.

An ecstatic Guernsey Table Tennis Association president Derek Webb admitted that his grin 'just got larger and larger as the weekend progressed'.

'From an association and a personal point of view, when we embarked on this ?fairytale? period four or five years ago, this was what we were dreaming of,' he said.

'To hold the championships last year was fantastic, now to win three medals is amazing.

'It just shows that what we are trying to do is working - the development, the coaching and the amount of hours that are being put into the game over here,' he said.

Loveridge's performances in the team event which preceded the individual competition saw her seeded number one and she lived up to that billing.

In a tough semi-final, she beat England's number three seed Ajonija Sundararajan 3-2, having previously lost to the same opponent in the team event.

'She had lost to the same girl, but I knew that Alice had the power and spin to beat her,' said Becks O'Keefe, the GTTA development officer to whom Webb credits much of the success.

Loveridge, who still has another year in these championships, went on to defeat number seven seed Linda Flaws from Scotland in straight sets to win the gold.

'We were expecting a lot from Alice, but did not want to put her under too much pressure,' Webb said.

The boys team consisting of Langlois, Matthew Stubbington, Peter Mitchell and Liam Robilliard won their matches against Wales (8-2), Jersey (10-0), Scotland (7-3) and the Isle of Man (7-3). They also drew against England and their only defeat came at the hands of gold medallists Ireland.

Under the round-robin format, the draw against England resulted in a countback between sets won and lost to resolve second place. Guernsey took it by virtue of two sets.

'A team silver is fantastic and to get above England, that to me is massive,' Webb said. 'We were not far from winning gold in the team event. Ireland had one very good player and that was the main difference.'

Having only lost two games in the team event, Langlois was the second seed in the individuals and maintained his superb form to reach the semi-finals.

There he lost narrowly to Ireland's Neil O'Flynn, one of the players to have beaten him previously on the weekend.

'Oliver did exceedingly well and he was not that far away from getting to the final,' said Webb.

O'Keefe reported that there was 'lots of potential' coming through in the local ranks to be able to repeat these successes in the future and Webb added that the incentives that were there give players great motivation.

'It is a big carrot for these kids to go away and compete in these championships and they now know that there are some spoils available to them,' he said.

'Every time we go away, we have moved on. I have always believed that we can raise the level of the game in Guernsey and we are proving it.

'The future looks good. Generally, it is up to these kids just how far they can go.'