A family feel to Guernsey's table tennis team at 2017 Island Games

THERE will be a family feel to Guernsey's table tennis team at this summer's NatWest Island Games with one set of twins along with a mother and daughter named in the eight-strong Sarnian contingent.

Half of the group will be making their debuts, but the quest to retain the team gold medal they won in Jersey so dramatically is one that Derek Webb is confident can be achieved out in Gotland.

The Guernsey Table Tennis Association were originally planning to name their team for the June event last month, but delayed that announcement until this week.

There are few surprises, though, as the retirement of Alice Loveridge means that Dawn Morgan heads the women's quartet and Garry Dodd does likewise in the men's.

But there is a unique occurrence as a mother and daughter are named in the same team, with Sam Kershaw joined by her teenage daughter Daisy, who makes her Games debut.

In the men's team, another debutant is Lawrence Stacey, who joins his twin brother, the experienced Joshua, who featured at Jersey 2015.

Throw in more debutants in Charlotte Casey and Ben Foss, and it is a fresh-looking Guernsey team that will make the trip to the Swedish isle in less than 100 days' time.

• Full story in Friday's Guernsey Press.