JERSEY fielded both a boys’ and girls’ team at the Primary Schools Table Tennis International Championships in Cardiff, looking to make their mark on the global stage.
An absolute battle kicked off proceedings, with Scotland taking a narrow victory over the Islanders 6-4 in an intense clash.
There were many highlights for the boys, including a convincing 8-2 thrashing of arch-rivals Guernsey, and young star Jonty Porter’s momentous 3-1 win over England’s No.1 Jayden Xuan, flipping the script in a David vs Goliath clash.
However, that heroic effort wasn’t enough to overturn the English, with Jersey falling 1-9 against the titans.
Invaluable experience was gained by the Jersey girls side, who were by far the youngest squad in the competition.
Despite losing all their matches, the girls in red acquitted themselves incredibly well, further preparing them for the remaining two years of competition at this level.
Nina Strojek starred for the outfit, winning a match against the Sarnians and a doubles fixture against Scotland.
In the individual matches, Jonty Porter performed excellently to qualify for the main event, but agonisingly fell short against Guernsey’s Luke Evans 1-3, after beating him prior.
Rory Quinn was pitted against fellow Jerseyman James Cleverly in the Consolation, winning 3-0.
Quinn played some astonishing table tennis all the way to the quarter-final, where Welshman Toby Young’s drive to win on home soil was too great an obstacle, narrowly losing 3-2 after some thrilling rallies. Evan Ness clinched bronze in the Consolation, losing 0-3 to England’s eventual winner Oliver Glowacki.
The girls all competed in the Consolation event, with Pippa Cleverly beating fellow team member Nina Strojek 3-2 in a nail-biting match, but losing in the quarter final to Chloe Lee of Scotland 0-3.
Aimee Moreira lost to Ezqi Dion of Wales in the other half of the draw, giving it her all to take a game to go down 1-3.
Martin Tupper, head coach, said: “We have been concentrating on encouraging more girls to play table tennis over the past few years and it’s really paying off.
“It was a baptism of fire for them at such a major event, but they remained positive and never stopped putting in the maximum effort.
“There were great performances from all four Jersey boys too, with some incredibly high standard play, to prepare them for the upcoming Jersey inter-insulars, occurring on 26 April.
“Evan Ness played brilliantly, thoroughly deserving his bronze medal, and Jonty Porter won six singles matches in the team and three doubles playing with Evan.
“The future looks bright for Jersey table tennis.”
With Jersey’s young up-and-coming phenoms already imposing themselves on the international stage, it seems the sky truly is the limit for the Island’s table tennis aspirations.
