GUERNSEY men registered an outstanding win over Benin in the World Team Championships in Guangzhou, China, yesterday.
All three of the team – Garry Dodd, Scott Romeril and Ollie Langlois – tasted success over their east African opponents in their Division Four Group O match on day two of the competition.
‘I’m delighted – it’s a good win,’ said Derek Webb, the Guernsey Table Tennis Association president, who is in the Far East with the side.
Dodd won the first game against Geoffrey Badokonon before Romeril came close to defeating Monday Olabiyi.
The match went to five games, with the 18-year-old Romeril going down 11-8 in the decider.
Next up Langlois, the youngest of the team at 14, also had to go to five games in his match with Nassif Ligali.
But it was Langlois who was celebrating at the end with a 3-2 victory when he won the fifth game 11-5.
Dodd then lost to Olabiyi, but Romeril had few problems getting past Badokonon, winning in straight games.
The result went some way to alleviating the pain of earlier in the day when they had lost 3-0 to the Republic of Congo.
Dodd was the only player to win a game in that match.
‘This was a lot better performance,’ said Webb.
‘We could have done better [against Congo].’
Today the greens face Iceland, whom Benin beat yesterday morning.
But Webb says his team are not taking anything for granted.
‘We could do well, but it’s all about on the day,’ he said.
‘Everything is so tight but hopefully we can build on this now.’
The Guernsey women also put in a good performance to take a game off Sri Lanka in their Division Three Group K clash.
Thirteen-year-old Alice Loveridge was the star when she won a five-game thriller with Ishara Madurangi.
The British under-14 champion took the first two games 11-6 and 15-13 before her opponent came back to win the next two 11-9 and 11-3.
But Loveridge dug deep to come back to win the deciding game 11-7.
‘It was a great match, Alice played terrifically,’ said Webb.
‘It was a tight game and it kept us in the match.’
Loveridge then went on to narrowly lose her next match with Deepika Rodrigo.
The Sri Lankan had earlier taken care of Sarnian veteran Dawn Morgan and with Becks O’Keefe losing to Ruhansi Wijekoon after having taken a game off her opponent, the Sri Lankans took a 3-1 win.
Webb took a lot of positives out of the match and feels that the Guernsey players, men and women, are on the right course.
The men are second in their group behind the Republic of Congo, while the women are having a tougher time at the bottom of theirs with four defeats.
‘There’s not a great gulf,’ said Webb.
‘We just need to be on top of our game and we’ll get some results. All in all, it’s going all right.
‘I’m very happy.’
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