The 2025 Senior Schools International Table Tennis tournament was held recently, with the Isle of Man fielding a team of its latest group of talented young players.

Jersey were the hosts for this year's event, played at Fort Regent in the island’s capital, St Helier.

Countries competing included England, Scotland, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the island.

The team event was played on the Friday evening and all day Saturday, with the individual singles played on Sunday.

Liav Lanin and Thomas Taylor Burt represented the Isle of Man in the under-14 boys category.

Manx youngster Henry Weaver also joined up with James Cleverly of Jersey and were called ‘Mixed’ in the team event.

All three players acquitted themselves well with some closely contested games, but no matches won. Liav did extremely well in the plate event, reaching the semi-final, only losing out to the eventual winner Victor Chen.

Manx girl Sydnie Weaver joined up with Maia Bowden of Jersey and were called ‘Mixed B’ in the team event.

In their tie against Guernsey B, Sydnie had two tremendous wins against Katherine Hansen and Aimee Moreira who were both ranked higher than her.

She then combined well with Maia to take the doubles in a superb 5-0 victory. In their match against top-ranked England though, they were outplayed, losing 0-5.

Against Jersey the girls put up a good fight, with Sydnie coming close in several games but sadly to no avail against strong opposition.

It was a similar story against tough Wales and Scotland teams. Against Guernsey A, Sydnie played well but couldn’t add any points to the two Maia notched up, which meant they lost out 2-3.

Isle of Man therefore finished fifth out of six in this event. In the singles event, Mixed B finished in a creditable 10th place out of 12.

In the under-16 singles event, Amit Lanin dropped down an age group to play, while William Shooter played in the under-18 event.

Despite his clear talent and putting in strong performances, Amit was sadly unable to record any wins, finishing in third place in his group. Sadly, he had no luck either in the plate event but again played well.

The under-18 boys team event saw nine teams split into two groups, with the Isle of Man being drawn into group A which consisted of five teams.

William Shooter and Amit Lanin each had tough opening matches against England A and Wales, both results finishing 0-5.

They then found great form to record a convincing win against Jersey B 5-0 and in the final group match the boys recorded another remarkable win - this time against a depleted Scotland B 3-2.

The resulting third position in the group brought a final play-off against Scotland A - who were placed third in group B - for overall fifth or sixth place.

Although the tie ended up 3-0 in Scotland’s favour, Will and Amit combined superbly in the doubles and were unfortunate not to come away with anything.

Of note were the first two sets of 10/12 and 11/13, which were settled in extremely close fashion. In summary, the boys emerged with great credit in an overall sixth-place finish.

Overall, the Isle of Man boys and girls all acquitted themselves really well and they will have gained much in terms of experience against high-quality competition.

KEN MITCHELL