Romeril conquers all in first open event

SCOTT ROMERIL nearly came a cropper against Alice Loveridge but held his nerve to put the prodigy out at the semi-final stage before going on to win the Senior Group tournament. It was encouraging for the future of island table tennis to see three under-18s make it through to the last four of the first open tournament of the season.

The event is unique in that each round is drawn. This meant that some of the big guns had tough matches in the early rounds and former island champion Peter Bretel was a casualty of this as he came up against Romeril in round one.

Bretel, the conqueror of the teenager in the island semi-finals earlier this year, was defeated this time with Romeril winning in four tight games.

Ollie Langlois also had the misfortune to draw Garry Dodd and again lost in four.

The quarter-finals saw two other major casualties as island champion Phil Ogier was defeated in five tight sets by the in-form Dodd, while Mark Pipet was beaten by Jez Powell in four to set up a high-quality and youthful semi-final line-up.

The first semi went to the junior, Dodd, who beat Jez Powell 8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8.

The other was a classic, with 12-year-old Loveridge, who had benefited from a relatively generous draw, facing Romeril.

The game was a high-class encounter with many fast, attacking rallies which had the supporters on the edge of their seats.

Loveridge was enjoying a game of tremendous power for such a young player and the Olympic hopeful matched Romeril in many areas.

She pinched the first game 11-9 but Romeril powered back to win the next 11-3.

The third was similarly one-sided and Loveridge edged ahead 2-1 by winning it 11-4.

With the pressure on, Romeril upped his game and eventually had too much for the youngster, winning 11-6, 11-7 to set up a final against close rival Dodd.

That was another quality and tight match but by now Romeril was on the top of his game and stormed through in three straight sets, 11-7, 15-13, 11-9.

Dodd gave a good performance and did not deserve to lose 3-0.