Alice's hard work at GB camp pays off

ALICE LOVERIDGE'S hard work at a British Table Tennis Olympic training camp paid dividends at the weekend.

The 14-year-old Sarnian travelled from her Croatian camp through the Austrian Alps to compete at the Czech Cadet Open at Horonin in the Czech Republic.

She travelled with her Croatian coach, Nikica Vukelja, and fellow camp trainees Emily Bates and Lucy Davidson of England.

Loveridge competed in the cadet girls' singles and found herself in a tough qualifying group with a German, an Austrian and a girl from the Czech Republic.

Her first game was against the German Yuko Imamura, who was ranked eight places above Loveridge at 18 and the seeded player.

It proved to be a tough encounter that went the full distance and in the deciding leg Loveridge enjoyed an 8-4 advantage, but the German rallied to come back to 8-7.

The next four points were shared and the Guernsey girl had match point at 10-9.

The German enjoyed a fortunate net to level the match at 10-10, but Loveridge held her nerve and won the next two points to win this crucial first match.