Ogier pushed by only one rival as he heads qualifiers

PHIL OGIER enjoyed an excellent day at this year's top 10 tournament at the Guernsey Table Tennis Centre. He won all nine of his round-robin matches and will head the contingent of six local players in the Channel Islands top 12 event in Jersey at the end of January.

The results between the six Guernsey qualifiers are carried forward to the CI event where they meet the top six from Jersey.

The only time Ogier was pushed was when he met the day's surprise package, Jez Powell, who only lost 12-10 in the fifth and deciding set.

Powell suffered just one other loss, rather surprisingly to Martyn Sarre.

His best wins were over teammates Scott Romeril by three games to one and Garry Dodd 3-0.

Romeril would not be happy with his third position and would have expected to have done better.

Arguably, the performance of the day came from James Lesbirel, who showed a welcome return to form.

He finished fourth and included victories over Dodd and former island champion Pete Bretel. He lost only narrowly to Powell.

Dodd finished fifth in his first top 10 and will be satisfied to have qualified.

The final qualifier was Bretel. Sarre was seventh and Joel Clancy eighth.

The junior top 10 was hotly contested before 12-year- old Ollie Langlois snatched victory in the final game by beating his brother, Adam, in four sets.

This was his first win over his elder brother in some time and he was delighted to have done so well in an under-18 tournament.

Ollie only lost one game all day, 3-1 to Alice Loveridge.

Adam finished second with seven wins. He also lost surprisingly to Liam Robilliard 3-1.

Loveridge finished third on seven also, while Matt Stubbington was fourth with six.

One of the best performances was from the highly promising Robilliard, who also won six matches in finishing fifth.

He not only beat Langlois but First Division player Paul Hainsworth, who was the sixth and final qualifier.