The Guernsey contingent at the National Sports Centre in the Isle of Man. (0561085)
THE Guernsey team for the British Primary Schools’ Championships took to the floor in the National Sports Centre in the Isle of Man at the weekend to take on the best boys and girls in the British Isles.
The boys’ quartet comprised twins Joshua and Lawrence Stacey, Luke Le Tissier and Joshua Butler and the girls were Kate Stubbington, Rachel Harm, Chloe Le Tissier and Naomi Priest.
The coaches, Becks O’Keefe and Derek Webb, were assisted by Laura Harm, who was initially part of the squad, but broke her arm just prior to the event.
The party together with their supporters reached the Isle of Man on Friday to take part in the team event.
After a day of travelling the tired teams had a tough draw, facing Scotland in their first match and then England in the evening.
The boys put up a creditable performance in a 7-3 defeat to the Scots.
The Sarnian winners in this first session were the Stacey brothers, who both recorded a win against the Scottish number two Blair Fowler, while Le Tissier picked up a hard-fought 3-2 win against his Scottish counterpart.
The girls performed even better losing a tight game 4-6.
Stubbington won both her games and together with Harm they won the pairs match. Le Tissier kicked off her Guernsey career in these championships with a 3-2 win against Scotland’s Nicole Wright.
England proved to be even harder opposition, with the boys taking a 0-10 beating and the girls registering just a single rubber.
However, that proved an important win for Stubbington as it was against the English number two, Emma Torkington, and was to ensure her a top-two seeding in the individual tournament to come.
With the Friday programme complete, a night’s sleep did the team a world of good and they came out fighting with the boys completing an amazing 7-3 victory over the Irish squad.
All the boys won matches, with Joshua Butler registering his first win and completing a double over his Irish opponents.
The Staceys also won both their singles and doubles.
The girls scored a fantastic 6-4 win over the Irish to complete the double.
Harm beat both her opponents, as did Stubbington as she continued her fantastic form.
They also won their doubles match.
To complete a team victory they needed one of the youngsters in the squad to win also.
Both Priest and Le Tissier fought hard, but it was the latter who closed out a fantastic five-set encounter for the team to be able to celebrate what is believed to be the first Guernsey girls’ team victory in this tournament.
Wales brought a strong squad to the tournament and they defeated the Guernsey boys 8-2, Lawrence Stacey winning both his rubbers as he continued to shine.
The girls went down 3-7 to the Welsh, with Stubbington again winning both her matches, Harm winning one of hers and Priest coming close to her first victory in her game against the Welsh number four.
With no Isle of Man girls’ team, that was the end of the event for Guernsey, but the boys took on the home side in what proved to be a tense and close match.
After the first round of singles and the doubles, they were level at 3-3 and when Joshua Stacey won his second game and Lawrence lost his, the match was again tied.
With Butler and Le Tissier up last, all depended on their performances and both games went to five sets.
However, both came through strongly and won 3-2 to give Guernsey the match 6-4.
That secured Guernsey fourth in the table for both the boys and the girls.
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