KATE STUBBINGTON and Beth Priest dominated bands one and two in the second Deutsche Bank Junior Table Tennis Banding Tournament of the season.
The event was held at the Guernsey Table Tennis Centre and included a 14-strong Alderney contingent.
Stubbington broke the Stacey domination in band one to take home the winner’s medal.
She beat Joshua Stacey in an exciting five-game final 11-9, 5-11, 11-2, 3-11, 11-8.
Despite the up-and-down nature of the performance, the match stood on a knife-edge at 2-2 and five-all in the last game.
However, Stubbington (pictured) took control and secured a well-deserved win.
In band two, Priest produced the performance of the tournament with a fantastic winning run to the final, which included getting the better of Stubbington in the quarters and Jack Totty in the semis.
In the final she came up against the in-form and ever-exuberant Joshua Butler and in a hard-fought, incredibly tight match, came through with the scores 12-10, 12-10, 13-11.
Band three saw Rachel Harm seeking to repeat her success of last month.
After beating her sister, Laura, in the semi-final, she once again faced Andrew Lihou in the final.
Lihou had got past Connor Gaudion and Sam Clark in the earlier rounds and his good form continued into the final.
This time it was to be Lihou’s day and he secured a quick victory, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6 to take the winner’s medal.
Old rivals Sam Edwards and Alex Robinson took to the table to fight out the band-four title.
Edwards had the tougher run through to the final and used that experience to power through to a straight-sets win over Alex, 13-11, 11-6, 11-9.
Alderney’s players dominated bands five and six.
In five, Ross Benfield took on fellow Ridunian Ryan Moore and came out on top in a three-set match 11-7, 11-6, 11-9.
This left all the excitement for band six, where Ryan Wesley and Kieron Kotocha, both from Alderney, fought out a cracking five-set final.
Kotocha rapidly went into a two game lead 11-5, 11-9.
But Wesley proceeded to get to grips with his opponent’s game and took the third stanza 11-9.
He then went on to take the last two games 11-8, 11-6 to complete a stunning turnaround.
Article posted on 3rd December, 2008 - 2.29pm
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