Loveridge wins first senior medal

TEENAGER Alice Loveridge came close to beating one of England's top women players as she claimed a bronze medal at the senior Six Nations tournament in the Isle of Man. 'It was an unbelievably good result,' said Derek Webb, president of the Guernsey Table Tennis Association, who was in Douglas with the men's and women's teams.

'She was up against quality opposition and in the team event only lost to the two English players and Ireland's Amanda Mogey,' said Webb.

But come the individual event, the 13-year-old and London 2012 Olympic Games prospect reversed the Mogey result and beat the Irish star 3-0 at the quarter-final stage to earn herself a semi-final spot against the England number four woman, Natalie Bawden, the current national under-21 champion.

Bawden was to win 13-11, 11-5, 11-6 before going on to defeat her international colleague, Abigail Embling, ranked five in England, also in straight games in the gold medal decider.

Earlier, Loveridge, the British schools' under-14 champion, had led Embling 2-1 and 9-7 in the fourth in the team event to emphasise the level she has reached.

Even in losing to Bawden, the GTTA president said 'it was very tight'.

'Alice has now gone on to training camp with the British Table Tennis Federation. In fact, she went off with the England team,' said Webb, before he returned to Guernsey yesterday.

Guernsey fielded two very young teams in the Isle of Man, Loveridge being joined by fellow schoolgirl Paula Le Ber in the women's event and brothers Ollie and Adam Langlois representing the men's team in the absence of island numbers one and two, Scott Romeril and Garry Dodd, both currently serving a representative suspension from the GTTA.

The Langlois boys lost all their matches, but Ollie came away as consolation singles champion.

In the women's team event, the Loveridge-Le Ber combination lost by the odd game in five to Scotland, Ireland and Wales, in addition to their 3-0 defeat by England.

However, they avoided the wooden spoon by defeating the Isle of Man 3-2.