JERSEY’S top six table tennis players to take on their Sarnian counterparts in the Channel Island Top 12 event this weekend have been decided.
Jersey’s Senior Top 12 tournament took place at Fort Regent last week, with a series of round-robin matches, where each player takes on the other 11.
The top six seeds, following the 11 matches, earned the right to travel to Guernsey Table Tennis Centre to take on their Guernsey foes in a bid to be crowned the Channel Island Top 12 champion.
Jersey’s winner – and their number one seed entering the CI Top 12 – is Chris Wheeler, who sensationally won all 11 of his matches.
The Scot moved to Jersey last summer, having played as a junior at Drumchapel Table Tennis Club in Glasgow, where the Caesarean teenager Hannah Silcock now plies her trade.
The accomplished player took time before university to train on a full-time basis in Eslov in Sweden, where fellow Islander Jordan Wykes plays.
Following graduation, Wheeler re-located to Jersey to work for a local law firm.
His resumé speaks volumes, having represented Scotland at both junior and senior level and also played for Drumchapel in the Premier Division of the Senior British League.
Wheeler also represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Championships in India in 2013.
After the opening day of the Top 12, four players held a flawless record of six wins from six: Wheeler, Leon Pierre, Chris Morshead and Alfie Sutherland.
After ten matches, it was just Wheeler and Pierre who remained undefeated with ten wins.
The pair squared off for the deciding match, and, in a tense opening set, Wheeler edged it 12-10, before comfortably closing out the next two for a straight sets victory.
Pierre is currently in his second year at Liverpool University studying Sports Science while competing for Liverpool in the BUCS University league in the Premier division.
The Islander won a scholarship to the university due to his exceptional table tennis ability.
He is a multiple winner of the CI Junior Top 12 and a regular competitor in the Senior top 12.
Pierre’s impressive history is headlined by helping Jersey to Island Games gold in 2023 in the team event.
Joining Wheeler and Pierre in Guernsey are: Chris Morshead (9 wins); Alfie Sutherland (7 wins); and John Le Fondre and William Cornthwaite (both six wins).
Players carry their results against the Jersey top six into the CI Top 12 contest at the end of the month.
