Guernsey fourth out of seven

GUERNSEY yesterday lost their last league match of the season, but player-coach Pieter Theron was not overly-dejected by a second heavy loss in the space of a week. The 5-1 home defeat by West Hants at Longcamps was their third setback of the season, but three wins ensured that they remain in the top division for next season.

'I'm a bit disappointed with the result but not with the way the boys played today,' said Theron.

'The objective at the start of the season was to stay in this division. We won three and we lost three so we finished fourth out of seven.

'If you had given that to me at the beginning of the season, I would have taken it. We've gained valuable experience and we can take a tremendous amount away from this season.

'Most of the players that we have come up against are current professionals or ex-professionals. The boys have come of age this season.'

West Hants arrived on the island without Richard Irwin, their best player, who was away travelling.

But even without him the second-placed side were always going to be a handful for the home team.

The first match saw Theron come undone against left-hander David Sanger 2-6, 4-6.

Theron was guilty of not taking his chances and he was punished.

The match was then levelled as Rob West beat Matt Sanger.

West is a confidence player and this was his day as he served extremely well and was positive from the start. He also showed maturity as he varied his game to win comfortably 6-2, 6-2.

Going one set down and finding himself 5-1 down in the second set, Patrick Ogier did very well to come back against a strong James Pankhurst to get to 5-5.

Disappointingly for Ogier, all his hard work came to nothing as the south coast player went onto win the set 7-5 and the match.

Dom McLuskey also lost the first set against Matt Coombes but took the second 7-5 before hitting the self-destruct button in the third.

The youngster became agitated as errors crept into his game and Coombes remained calm to take it 6-1.

The visitors took their winning form into the doubles as the pairing of Pankhurst and David Sanger beat the South African exiles Theron and Niel de Kok without many problems.

On the other court Matt Sanger and Coombes also had an easy ride against West and Andrew Privett.

The visitors went home happy.

'That means we should finish second,' said Coombes.

'We're in the play-offs and if we win that we will be in the national finals in September. It's been a good season.'