result so far in the World Team Table Tennis Championships in China, two wins from Craig Gascoyne couldn’t prevent Jersey from a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Iceland today.
The result means that Jersey finish bottom of Division V Group O and now move on to the second stage of competition, which will decide the teams finishing in 89th to 104th positions overall, with the draw to take place later today.
Guernsey finished third in the group, which was won by Congo Brazzaville.
Jersey’s Luke Walker first took on Richard Magnasson and after both players were pulled up by the
umpire and docked a point over their ball toss, the Icelandic number one, forcing errors with some good angles, won 11-6, 11-1, 11-5.
Craig Gascoyne took control in his match against Dadi Gudmundsson to win 11-7, 11-8, 11-4 and level the tie at 1-1. Chris Corfield then came on against the powerful Magnus Magnusson, who played some excellent positional shots to overpower the 17-year-old 11-3, 11-8, 11-6.
Not for the first time, Gascoyne had to win his second match to keep the tie alive, and this time had to do so against the number one, Magnason, who took the first game 11-9. The Icelander raced to a 9-5 lead in the second but Gascoyne came back strongly, winning six straight points to level the match.
Some powerful smashes were traded in the third, which Magnason won 11-8, but the Jersey player replied once again by closing out the fourth game 11-9.
In the deciding game Gascoyne was ahead by two points at the midway change of ends, but Magnason fought back and held two match points before Gascoyne ground out two points against the serve, taking the game 13-11 and the match with two clear winners.
With the overall match score standing at 2-2, Walker came out for his second match against Gudmundsson and after a tentative start got into his attacking stride and took the game to his opponent with some great shots. The Iceland player made good use of his last two serves, however, and closed out the game by 11 points to nine.
He then took control in the second game but 15-year-old Walker staged a comeback and took the game 11-9 to square the match. It was a tight affair, but the Iceland player then took the next two games 11-8 to tilt the match in his side’s favour 3-2.
Yesterday it was announced that the Netherlands will host the World Championships in 2011.
The Jersey delegation will be presenting two gifts to commemorate the JTTA’s 85th anniversary later today. These will be given to the chairman of the Guangzhou Organising Committee and the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association.
