Improving Loveridge gets into last eight in Portugal

GUERNSEY girls Alice Loveridge and Kate Stubbington exceeded expectations at the 17th Portuguese Youth Open table tennis Championships in Tavira at the weekend.

The pair came 11th out of 19 countries in the cadets' team event while Loveridge, who lives and trains at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield as a member of the British table tennis squad, reached the quarter-finals of the singles.

'It was a very commendable performance and it's got to be our best ever,' said Derek Webb, the president of the Guernsey Table Tennis Association, who was at the event.

'In the past we'd get excited about beating Wales, but beating France in an European tournament is fantastic.'

First up in the group stages, Loveridge, 15, and Stubbington, 13, met Portugal B, who beat them 3-2.

However, they then turned on the style when they met France B and came away with a 3-1 victory.