Elite table tennis players arrive for Home Countries Veterans' Championships

The Guernsey Table Tennis Association have successfully hosted this busy event on three past occasions – most recently 2017 – and are staging this 26th edition, which runs from today to Sunday.

It is a busy event indeed as the leading veteran players from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Jersey, and Isle of Man join the Sarnians in action across five age categories, ranging from over-40s all the way to over-75s.

The standard is usually extremely high, particularly in the O40s, where historically a number of former high-quality seniors have competed.

Former internationals to be on the roll of honours as O40 winners include 12-time Welsh men’s champion Ryan Jenkins and eight-time Irish champion Colum Slevin as well as England’s Nigel Eckersley, Scotland’s Richard Yule, and Wales’s Regina Donovan, to name just a few.

Owing to the strong standards, the Sarnians have found it difficult to pick up spoils, and the 2017 hosting saw the only gold medals obtained by local players.

Dawn Morgan and Kay Chivers excelled in the O50 women’s category and took team gold as well as the doubles crown.

Morgan made it a clean sweep by clinching the O50 women’s singles thanks to a victory over a three-time former O40 women’s singles champion at this very event, England’s Sue Collier.

Onwards to 2024 and both Morgan and Chivers form part of an 18-strong Sarnian line-up all hoping to taste success over the packed schedule at the GTTA Centre.

The action comprises team events across all five age categories, plus singles and doubles competitions for each.

The team event will take place throughout today and tomorrow morning, followed by the doubles tomorrow afternoon and the singles on Sunday.

Morgan is competing once more in the O50 women alongside Juliette Yeaman, while Chivers is competing in the mixed O60s event alongside Craig Dunning and Tim Le Page.

The duo are competing together in the O60 women’s doubles and will be in with a good chance of emulating their success from seven years prior, albeit in the next age category up.

In the O40s local Division One players Jamie Ferbrache and Steve Ozanne, who both competed in the O40 Inter-Insular against Jersey earlier this year, are expected to face challenging opposition.

England look particularly strong and have the currently ranked No 5 and 7 veteran men in Jason Ramage and Andrew Wilkinson. They won the O40 men’s singles in 2022 and 2019, respectively.

Wales have former Teesport manager Michael Marsden in their line-up. Marsden was a gold medallist in the men’s doubles at the World Veterans Championships last year, alongside the German Gregor Clemens Foerster.

Jersey have selected a strong side for the event, comprising of former Green Trophy representative Mariusz Cieminski and Gregorz Frankowski.

Phil Ogier is the most decorated male within the Guernsey contingent, as he is a seven-time Island men’s singles champion.

He is competing in the O50s alongside Jez Powell and Nye Matthew. Guernsey have a B side in this event made up of Andy Gill, Ian Le Page, and Peter Vivian.

England once more look strong in this category with Darren Griffin and the 12th ranked vet in England, Ritchie Venner, a former O40 men’s singles and three-time O40 men’s doubles champion at this event.

Gary Wilcocks is the next-most decorated male player in Guernsey’s line-up as the four-time former men’s singles champion is competing alongside St Pauls team-mate Terry Trustum in the O70s event.

The line-up is completed by Keith Opie, Maurice James, and Ken Falla, who make-up the O75s trio. Opie and James picked up a silver medal in the team event last year in Ireland and the team will be hoping to go one better this time around.

The competitive but friendly event contains a presentation dinner at St Pierre Park on the Saturday evening.

The event is expected to be live streamed directly on YouTube via the GTTA channel, but entry is free to spectators who want to catch any of the action in person.