The first leg of Isle of Man Table Tennis Association’s Island Championships took place last week at the NSC.

Other events will take place in the coming few weeks.

Scott Lewis came through the group stages largely untroubled and then defeated Wayne Taylor in the quarter-finals.

Duncan Alexander hit a brick wall against Mike Tamarov who knocked his fellow island team player out in four explosive ends.

Darren Smethurst continued his excellent form with a five-set victory over Tamarov in the group stages and was unlucky to be dumped out in the play-off stage by Adam Teare 11/9 in the fifth.

Teare then squeezed past Malcolm Cummings in the quarter-finals 11/7 in the fifth.

In the semi-finals, Tamarov pushed Lewis hard to be 2-1 up in games, before the 2024 island champion stepped up a gear to decisively take the final two ends and the match.

John Shooter had a tough quarter-final match against past champion Liam Chan, which he came through unscathed in three ends.

In the second semi-final, Shooter managed to outplay Teare to ease into the final against familiar foe Lewis.

As expected, the final featured some fantastic counter-hitting and looping attacks, but Shooter could not quite gain enough traction and maintain his challenge.

The hard-hitting Lewis was in electric form and just too good on the night, even for the classy Shooter. The match was therefore settled in favour of Lewis 11/7, 11/9, 11/8.

This makes it three titles in a row for Lewis and his fourth overall since 2021.

It seems likely that he will add to his haul in the coming years.

This had a limited entry this year, so it went straight to the final between fellow Division One players Becky Taylor and Sonja Shaw.

Taylor got the better of Shaw from the get-go, taking the first end narrowly 11-9. She then built on this to take the second end 11-7 and the third for the match, 11-4.

This win makes it four singles titles for Taylor, having won it in 2019, 2023 and 2024, and now in 2025.

This was a round robin involving Amit Lanin, Luke Begley, Liav Lanin, Henry Weaver, Sydnie Weaver and Thomas Taylor Burt.

Luke had a close match with Liav, which he managed to take 11-9 in the fifth end. Henry had a similarly close tussle with Tom and was pegged back by a determined opponent who took it 11-4 in the fifth end.

Sydnie Weaver continues to show great promise in the junior ranks and she had a tremendous win over Tom which she took 11-4 in the fifth end.

Overall though, Amit was unbeaten - being the only Division One regular in this event - which meant he took top spot, with Luke in second place.

- The Mixed Doubles event plus the over-40s, 50s and 60s vets singles events all took place this week – reports to follow.

On May 7 is the men’s doubles, women’s doubles and under-14s events. To conclude the tournaments for this year, the Graham McFarlane Veterans Doubles and Under-18s events will be played on May 14.

The entry window for the final two events closes May 7, so there is still time to enter if you wish.

Watch out for reminders and updates on the Isle of Man Table Tennis Association Facebook page and via its website at www.tabletennis365.com/IOM

KEN MITCHELL