The 2020 edition of Isle of Man Table Tennis Association’s island championships got underway last week.

Deciding on the champions is always a hard-fought contest filled with passion, determination, disappointment and glory.

This year’s event looks to be no different as the first few rounds have already thrown up some fierce battles and produced some very close results.

The championship has been scheduled to take place over two weeks. In the first week (last week), the events that have been decided are the women’s singles and doubles, while the under-14s, u18s, over-40s and over-60s will be decided and reported in next week’s IoM Courier.

There will also be a full report on the men’s singles and doubles next week which promises to be a very interesting read.

Women’s Singles

This competition was played on a round-robin basis of four players.

Island Games double bronze medallist Khayee Vinas won overall ahead of up-and-coming junior Sonja Shaw as runner-up.

Women’s Doubles

This was played as a straight final and the winners were Khayee Vinas and Wilma Dalugdugan, with Libby Quaggin and Sonja Shaw the runners-up.

Under-14s

This competition began in two groups of five and the winner of group A was William Shooter, with Amit Lanin in second place.

Group B was won by Charlie Callow with newcomer Ege Niyazi coming in second place. These four players competed in the semi-finals earlier this week for a place in the final.

Under-18s

There were two groups of three and two groups of four for this event, with the group winners being as follows:

Group A - Cameron Dudley; Group B - Charlie Callow; Group C - Ronan Thompson; Group D - William Shooter.

In the quarter-finals, Dudley will play Sonja Shaw, Shooter will play Libby Quaggin, Thompson will play Wilma Dalugdugan and Glenn Callow will play brother Charlie.

Over-40s

For this event, there were four groups of four players. After the initial two rounds of play, there are still two quarter finals to play. What has been decided are two places after Chris Holland beat Marc Townsend and Malcolm Cummings beat John Magnall.

Over-60s

Six players qualified for the competition and were split into two groups of three.

Through to the semi-finals are Malc Lewis versus Steve Curtis and Malcolm Lambert versus Graham McFarlane.

l Next week’s report will include a full list of all the final winners who will collect their trophies during the prize presentation evening which takes place on Friday, October 30 at Douglas Golf Club.

Two days earlier on Wednesday, October 28 the IoMTTA will host the infamous Fun Doubles Championship which takes place during half-term week.

This is a chance for players from all divisions to partner up and be in with a chance of winning a trophy. The competition always produces results from unlikely winners.

l There are three clubs on the Isle of Man that you can visit if you are interested in playing table tennis: on Mondays at Ballakermeen; Tuesdays at the Buchan; and Thursdays at Ramsey.

For more information, contact the association on Facebook www.facebook.com/TableTennisIOM

Maggie Mulhern

and Wayne Taylor