Ogier holds his nerve

PHIL OGIER put his teammates and his own nerves through a shredder before securing a stunning gold for Guernsey yesterday morning. It was the first time the Sarnians had topped the podium in the event and they could not have done it in more dramatic fashion.

The match with Gotland see-sawed throughout until it came down to the deciding fifth game in the deciding seventh rubber with Ogier up against 15-year-old talent Johan Eriksson.

'It was bizarre that after two-and-a-half days, it all goes down to the last point in a deciding game. You couldn't have written a better script,' Ogier said.

Their match had been a totally entrancing yet extremely strange one up to that point.

Ogier was comfortably in control in game one and he took it 11-6, but then something in Eriksson's game clicked.

The youngster, who had earlier lost to Guernsey's own teenage protege, Scott Romeril, in straight sets, was simply awesome in the second.

Ogier could not cope with his fierce drives as the Gotlander stormed into a 9-1 lead in no time at all and won it 11-5.

The next two games were a virtual repeat of the first couple as Ogier regained his composure to forge 2-1 ahead only to have Eriksson fight back in blistering fashion in the fourth.

The fifth and deciding game, the one that would settle the gold, was unsurprisingly tense, but some of the rallies were sensational.

It was the experience of Ogier, though, that proved to be vital. He eventually found himself with three match points at 10-7 and contrived to lose the first two, just to heighten the tension.

But a final mistake from Eriksson was pounced upon and Ogier was left jumping up and down, signalling just how much this meant to the whole team.

'Unbelievable, I am still in a state of shock,' said the Sarnian number one as the podium and flag pole were being set up in the Sandwick Junior High School sports hall.

'It is something, as a team, we have worked so hard for. We didn't expect it but I am so glad we have taken the opportunity.'

He admitted that the inconsistent form of his last opponent made for an interesting final rubber.

'He seemed to play exceptionally well at times, but at other times was making a lot of unforced errors. It got to a point where I thought I was going to have to change things around, but then he went off the boil again.

'It was just a case of hanging in there and putting him under pressure as he is quite an aggressive player. He started making a few mistakes and in the end it lost him the game.

Ogier and Romeril had given their side the ideal start by winning their opening singles matches.

But in Evelina Carlsson, Gotland had a class act who helped them level things at 2-2 with a singles victory over Morgan and in the women's doubles.

Romeril then had an agonising five-setter against Jonas Hederstedt in which he did brilliantly to recover from losing the first two games but couldn't make his efforts count in the fifth.

With Gotland 3-2 ahead, Morgan and Ogier had to take the mixed rubber and they cruised into a 2-0 lead against Carlsson and an out of sorts Eriksson.

But the diminutive yet outstanding 18-year-old woman did most of the work as Gotland pulled things level at two-all and pushed the Guernsey pair all the way in the fifth until the Sarnians took it 11-9.

That set up the stage perfectly for Ogier's fitting finale.