THE success story that it is island table tennis in the 21st century shows no sign of slowing.

Sportingbet Guernsey A, as they are known in the National League, are just one more really good weekend away from a place in the Premier League, an astonishing achievement whether they come through it or not.

It is barely believable, admitted captain Phil Ogier.

But, it is one thing getting as far up the national ladder and, at the same time, developing the sport to heights it could not have imagined a decade ago when the top players were shivering in cold church halls, it is another to stay so successful.

Which begs the question, just how does a successful sport maintain standards and numbers?

It is a discussion point that has been on Derek Webb’s mind for some time.

The Guernsey Table Tennis Association president is not the sort to wear a worried frown and not all of his plans have worked – the venture into the schools did not pay off as he had hoped – but ‘Webby’ is all too aware that maintaining these boom years will not be easy.

And if he needs reminding of what might happen if they take their

collective eye off the ball, he only has to cast his eyes across the Hougue du Pommier Centre and see how indoor bowls numbers have slipped away.

While Guernsey continues to produce some very able bowlers, the boom years are long behind them and there has been very little the Guernsey Indoor Bowling Association could do about it.

Simple nature has played a big part in bowls’ downturn as the players who swelled the indoor leagues to the extent that an extension needed to be built at Hougue du Pommier, drifted into old age and passed on.

The Tigers Bowls Club have done a very decent job in attracting youngsters into bowls, but in the face of the competition their efforts alone will never be enough to fully restore bowls’ numbers.

But, I ask, is table tennis out-achieving every other sport?

It is too political an issue to expect Graham Chester, the Sports Commission’s full-time sports development manager, to come out publicly on which sports are out-performing others, but Inside Track is happy to put a spoke in and suggest which ones are shining and which should be doing better.

Table tennis scores 9.5 out of 10 in my book.

The sport cannot do a lot more to expand and improve, but you can bet Derek Webb and Becks O’Keefe, the long-suffering development officer, won’t stop trying to think of new ways of taking it further.

The facilities are there, the administration is good and the talent has never been better.

They now need to bottle the formula and keep ample supplies of it to keep it going for decades to come.

Cycling, though, is fast catching table tennis for my No. 1 spot.

Under Gary Wallbridge’s astute and ambitious leadership, the Velo Club is in its best ever shape.

They operate without a paid development officer but you would hardly have guessed, such is the clarity and depth of its youth development.

Real quality is emerging, obvious examples being James McLaughlin and Danny Arblaster. They get 9.

Athletics and swimming (8 out of 10) have set high standards in recent times, but the transformation of hot potential into lasting senior quality is a problem they continue to contend with.

Dale Garland and Lee Merrien will not be around forever, so it is important the sport makes the most of the likes of Eban Marsh, Katie Rowe, Teresa Roberts and co., fast emerging.

But track and field, like swimming, can point to the fact that such is the depth of quality in those particular sports these days, that it is able to field a sprint relay squad at Commonwealth Games level. Who would have thought that a decade ago?

Sure, the 4×400 track team were a bunch of crocks in Delhi, but at least they got there and that team is likely to be improved in the short term.

Sailing’s youth development programme is another success story, while the swimming clubs appear in a similar boat to athletics, in that the youngsters keep breaking records but generally fade away when they move onto higher education.

Given the huge levels of commitment required to reach the very top at

national level, isolated Guernsey will always struggle to keep the 18+ years fully focused, so if each of these sports manages to bring one real champion [someone who will find his/her way into the hall of fame one day] through every few years then it has done well and we should be thankful.

As for the team sports, rugby and hockey are the big movers, while netball, football and cricket remain big attractions, but have common faults in their development process.

Cricket (8) has never had so many youngsters, but other than the naturally gifted Tim Ravenscroft, none as yet are kicking down the door and making irefutable arguments for  senior island inclusion. That is  disappointing.

The promise is there but is the GCB system getting the best out of the very best across all the age-groups? I am not so sure it is.

Football’s development procedures, in club and island-wide, has plenty of room for improvement, but chinks of light are starting to appear.

Guernsey FC will provide the elite with more focus and players will improve markedly.

That should dribble down through the ranks, but football (7) needs more high-quality coaches to guide and nurture that young talent and less focus on the clubs.

LIAM MCKENNA was one marvellous badminton player in his time.

He may have been the island’s finest ever male player, although I am certain Paul Le Tocq, the current No. 1, might argue with that.

McKenna is also a dab hand as an MC and after an unconvincing performance at the most recent dinner boxing night – those Scousers jokes were too liberal and overdone with a team of Merseysiders in town – he was back to his best in last Saturday’s excellent open show at Beau Sejour.

I just love his gumption and his jokes are generally not bad too.

He can stretch a point as far as the top rope around a boxing ring, and he did his best to strike trepidation into the visiting Cumbrian team by

announcing every local hope as not only the Guernsey champion, but also the Channel Islands one too.

Given that yours truly has banged on for a while about the need for CI area championships, it was music to my ears to hear boxer after boxer introduced as the ‘champe-y-un’ [sic] of the Channel Islands when none of them have ever gone near a unified CI title fight.

But McKenna, who at his best should be in Vegas, did miss a point when introducing the Alderney lad Billy Le Poullain.

Should he not have been champion of Alderney, Guernsey and the CI?

McKenna’s mastery of introduction got me thinking as to who might be the king of the Sarnian sporting MCs. Where would he stand in such a competition?

Well, I have to say I have a big soft spot for ‘old Den’, the self-deprecating host of the annual Sports Commission awards.

Dennis Burns’ jokes consistently get this old fool chuckling into my beer and long may he be the host of our awards night.

Lesser known and much less exposed to the wider world of Guernsey sport is John Robert, the moustachioed motor sport campaigner who is wheeled out annually for the Guernsey Kart and Motor Club awards.

Somewhat tamed this year due to the presence of so many youngsters in the audience, John, at his best, has you sitting on the edge of your seat such is his capacity to stick a metaphorical two fingers up to the world of political correctness, always a bonus in my eyes.

The anticipation of what he just might say makes him an entertainer.

Sure, he has the capacity to occasionally make you cringe, but at least you know you have been to a presentation and not slept through one. Good on him.

But if there is a true master of public ‘sports’ speaking only one man comes into the equation.

His name: John Burley.

Cricket brings the best out of this lord of the Mount Durand manor, but his eloquence and knowledge of just about anything, makes ‘CJ’ the ultimate Guernsey MC.

Sadly, we don’t hear of him enough.