Stone stuns Totty in final

THE first Deutsche Bank Junior Banding Tournament of the new season saw visitors from Alderney taste success in a busy afternoon at Hougue du Pommier. With a record entry for this event, resources were stretched to the limit but all bandings were completed in what proved to be a thrilling six-hour session.

Edward Rowe from Alderney took the band four final in an epic 3-2 battle with Sam Lesley while Robert Hunter lost 3-2 to Guernsey's Sam King after taking an early lead in the band six final.

Lesley got revenge for his band four defeat by claiming the band five title in a very tight 3-2 thriller against Alderney's Ryan Moore, taking the last game 11-9.

The group from Alderney showed great potential and are scheduled to visit Guernsey again for future banding tournaments and will only improve.

Band three saw Sam Clark, the recent St Paul's Open trophy winner, confirm his good form by making the final against James Lihou.

In a game full of long rallies and telling changes in spin and speed, Lihou came out on top 3-1.

The band two final saw 11-year-old twins Lawrence and Joshua Stacey battle it out in an incredible five-game show-stopper.

With raw talent like this on show, the future of Guernsey table tennis is in safe hands. In an encounter full of amazing rallies played at a ferocious pace, the match was tied at 2-2 after Lawrence seemed to get the upper hand over his brother with an 11-2 victory in the fourth game.

However, digging deep in the fifth, Joshua finally triumphed 14-12 in a fantastic finale, which was met with rapturous applause from the watching crowd.

That left Andrew Stone and Jack Totty to battle out the band one final.

Stone started the match on the attack right from the off and in a superb display of raw power forced his opponent back into the rear of the court in rally after rally.

Totty showed superb skill in regularly getting the ball back, but all too often Stone was left with acres of space to smash the ball into and quickly triumphed 3-0.

Make no mistake, this match was not as one-sided as the score suggests and young Totty is certainly a star in the making.

As for Stone, his star is already in the ascendancy and on the back of this type of form, more success will soon follow.