15-year old Barney Groves has rewritten Guernsey’s table tennis history books.
He enjoyed an incredible run to a maiden Senior Open title on Monday evening at the Guernsey Table Tennis Association centre, in a Senior Group event.
Groves achieved this exceptional feat from the position of being unseeded, something which is not thought to have happened before and certainly not over the course of the past 25 yeaars.
The difficulty in winning these blue riband Senior open tournaments cannot be denied, with no player outside of the leading half a dozen or so players having picked up titles before.
Impressive victories followed consecutively for the youngster in the latter stages of the competition, with a number coming against top Island players that he had not defeated before and it culminated with a tense 5 set triumph over the defending champion, Joshua Stacey.
The domestic table tennis season has been in action since the start of September and the long wait for the first ‘Open’ scratch start tournament was rewarded with one of the highest entries.
Such was the anticipation for the event, that it saw the highest field of entrants in recent memory, with a sizable field of 43 players competing for the crown across 15 groups.
The tournament has only been won by a few individuals over the past 17 years, with just 4 players having picked up the title in that period. Only 3-time consecutive winner Lawrence Stacey, 11-time former champion Phil Ogier and defending champion Joshua Stacey were former winners of the event during the period in the draw, noting that Gary Willcocks was also a former 4-time winner of the competition back in the 70’s.
The unenviable unseeded position that Groves found himself in is a direct reflection of the tough start he has experienced within the top-flight of the Doric Insurance sponsored senior leagues, where wins have been very hard to come by.
The night did not start well for the eventual champion, as he was defeated comfortably in 4 sets by 7th seeded Ravenscroft Panthers A team-mate, Nye Matthew. However, Groves did enough to qualify by dispatching Thea Cummins in straight sets and went from strength to strength from there.
One notable result from the Group stages saw 10th seed Steve Ozanne beaten to top spot in a tough Group J, with youngster Luke Evans fighting back from 2-1 down to win over his more experienced opponent over the full 5 sets. Ozanne managed to secure the runners-up spot by defeating Martin Sarre in straight sets, the same result achieved by Evans against the Whistlers man.
Rising Division 3 player Sekao Nwako upset the odds in Group E as he qualified as group runner-up following an excellent 5 set win over 2nd Division player Maurice James.
13th seed Jamie Ferbrache won group M but was embroiled in a classic with the returning Mark Fallaize, with Ferbrache clawing his way back from a 2-1 deficit to win in 5.
Finally, despite not qualifying, 3rd Division player Phil Harris played some excellent table tennis in extending Division 1 player Cameron Powell to the full 5 set distance, with a 2-1 lead having been held.
The strong quality of entrants in the field saw some tough clashes taking place as early as the Round of 32 and this included several all top-flight clashes. Ferbrache overcame Connor Powell in 4 sets, a result which was mirrored by Cameron who dispatched 11th seed Sam Clark. Matthew continued his strong tournament by defeating Mark Fenwick in straight sets, whilst 8th seed Matthew Casey overcame Fallaize in 4 sets.
Defensive player and 9th seed Micah Cohen got the better of fellow junior Evans in straight sets, whilst Groves fared well in a tight 4 set win over 14th seed Andy Gill.
The biggest surprise result of the round saw 4-time former winner and former 4-time Men’s Singles Island Champion Wilcocks upset 10th seed Ozanne. Wilcocks is not long returned to the sport following injury and he showed his class when he fought back from 2-1 down to navigate route to the Last 16.
The Last 16 is where Groves started to gain some real momentum and his first major scalp was earned. Up against 4th seed Lawrence, whom he had never beaten before, he showed some excellent battling qualities in earning a superb 4 set victory. Stacey had won the opening set and also held strong leads in sets 3 and 4, however Groves fought hard and took the final sets 12-10, 11-9.
The higher seeds all successfully negotiated their way to the Quarter finals, albeit top seed Phil Ogier needed 4 sets to get past Ferbrache, Josh Stacey withstood a fightback from the tricky Craig Dunning to win the 4th end of their encounter 12-10, whilst 6th seed Powell put an end to Cohen’s evening in 4 hard fought sets.
In other matches, 3rd seed Paul Hainsworth ended the evening of Willcocks in straight sets, whilst Casey dispatched Whistlers A team-mate and 12 seed Joseph Bourgaize, also in straight sets. 2nd seed Alex Robinson and 7th seed Matthew completed the Quarter Final lineup due to their straight sets wins over Nwako and Cameron, respectively.
Such was the quality of clashes thrown up in the Quarters, all but one of these went the full 5 set distance. Ogier was the only one to comfortably proceed due his straight sets win over Matthew. Groves had defeated 6th seed Jez Powell before and he looked set to do this comfortably when winning the opening 2 sets, however Powell fought back strongly to force a deciding end. Groves once more showed the improvements he has made mentally in the last year or so and he dominated proceedings from the off, comfortably taking it 11-2.
Finalist Stacey was himself embroiled in a classic encounter with 3rd seed Hainsworth on an adjacent table. Stacey was always in front and despite some strong table tennis from Hainsworth to take sets 2 and 4 by comfortable 11-4 scores, it was Stacey who ran away as comfortable winner in the deciding end 11-3 following a strong start.
The last Quarter was arguably the best of the lot between 2nd seed Robinson and 8th seed Casey. The duo shared a number of high-octane rallies which saw some excellent retrievals by Casey, including a wicked defensive chop from the back which found the edge of the table. Casey looked to be heading to victory when holding 2 match points at 10-8 in the decider, however Robinson used his 2 serves to good effect and managed to edge through 13-11.
Groves had been soundly beaten by Robinson in straight sets when they met in the league encounter at the end of September, but on this occasion a much closer match took place. Having lost the opener, it was important for Groves to have taken a close 2nd end 11-9 to keep himself in contention. When Robinson secured another tight end 11-9 to go 2-1 up, it seemed a formality that he would go on to secure victory. As had been the case already in the tournament, Groves showed his strong resolve to adversity and raised his level to confidently and impressively clinch the final 2 sets of the match for the loss of just 7 points.
In the other semi-final, Stacey bounced back well from losing the opening set 13-11 to Ogier, winning over 4 sets.
It would have been easy to assume that serial major winner Stacey would have too much nous and quality in the final against his younger opponent contesting his first final in such an event, however that was thrown out of the window when Groves edged a tentative opener 11-9. Stacey kept him honest when he comfortably won the 2nd 11-5, but Groves responded with a matching score in the 3rd. With a strong start in the 4th, Groves looked to be heading to the title, but Stacey to his credit battled hard and came back to take it 11-7. The final set was full of twists and turns and it initially saw Stacey in command during the mid-way stages when leading 5-3. Groves once more showed his strong resilience on the night, and he motored back into an 8-5 lead. Cue another swing which saw Stacey win the next 5 points to put himself on the brink of retaining his title at 10-8 with 2 match points. Stacey could not however put the match away and Groves saved both with some good table tennis. He maintained his strong belief, and this enabled him to close out the next 2 points to conclude a memorable evening for himself and those in attendance, in a late-night finish when the clock had crept past 23:00.
There isn’t long to wait until the next tournament as the Whistlers Open Singles will be held on Monday 3 November, where another hotly contested event is expected to take place.