This Is Guernsey

By Aaron Scoones

Garry Dodd, one of the Guernsey men’s team travelling to China. (0539147)

THE Guernsey team today start their 6,080-mile journey to the Chinese city of Guangzhou for the World Team Championships.

The men’s side is made up of Garry Dodd, Scott Romeril and Oliver Langlois while Dawn Morgan, Alice Loveridge and the island’s development coach, Becks O’Keefe, represent the women as they take on the best in the world.

‘It’s wonderful to go and play table tennis in China,’ said O’Keefe.

‘It’s their number one sport. China is the home of table tennis.’

The competition starts on Sunday and goes on for a week, finishing on 2 March.

The women are competing in Division Four and have been drawn in group K.

The other teams in their pool are El Salvador, Switzerland, Macau, Sri Lanka and Montenegro.

Macau are the Sarnians’ first opponents on Sunday.

After a round robin, Guernsey will then play countries in other groups who finished in a similar position to them.

At the last World Team Championships in Bremen, in 2006, Guernsey women came 66th out of 76 teams.

O’Keefe is relatively bullish about the women’s chances this time out.

‘I think we’ll be quite good,’ said O’Keefe.

‘We’ve got quite a good draw although obviously we don’t know too much about the opposition. And with Dawn and Alice, it’s quite a strong team.’

The Sarnian men, on the other hand, came 99th out of 108 in Bremen.

For the 2008 event, 17-year-old Dodd, who last month finished top Guernseyman in the Channel Islands Top 12 Championships, has received sponsorship from Cannon Asset Management and is excited to be going.

‘To have the chance to represent Guernsey at an international level is a fantastic opportunity for me,’ said the island’s number one.

‘It will be exciting to compete against players from so many different countries.’

There is a teenage theme to the men’s side, with Dodd being joined by 18-year-old Romeril and Langlois, who is the youngest of the squad at 14.

‘A lot of youngsters are going which is good,’ said the Guernsey Table Tennis Association president, Derek Webb.

Dodd, Romeril and Langlois will find out today with whom they have been drawn for the first stage of the tournament.

Maurice James is the Guernsey captain and Webb is going along with his wife, Christine, as delegates.

He is hoping for a good performance from his team.

‘We’d like to be going to all the Worlds so we want to improve our position and get as many wins as we can,’ he said.

Article posted on 22nd February, 2008 - 2.29pm