Commonwealth History

On Oct. 8th 1923, representatives of seven clubs met at St. Simon¹s Institute to form the Association, the JTTA. In the years following the popularity of the sport grew and in 1935 Jersey became affiliated to the International Table Tennis Federation. A number of international teams visited the Island including the Hungarians, Czechs, French, English, Japanese and Chinese champions. Island teams visited the World, European and Commonwealth championships. There were also visits to the island by top coaches.

Before 1939 there were three different leagues operating in Jersey, the Country Parishes, the Caesarean and the Free Church. The JTTA organised the annual tournaments. After the Occupation the JTTA took on the responsibility of running the leagues, starting with three divisions in 1946, increasing to five in 1948 and seven in 1950. The popularity of the sport fluctuated until 1980 since when a steady decline reached a low of three divisions. Currently there are four, rising to five for the 2003/2004 season. The number of affiliated clubs has dropped from 13 in 1974 to five in 2004.

In June 2004, a Jersey team went to the Commonwealth Games Table Tennis Federation championships in Kuala Lumpur, 15 countries took part. An account of their trip is below.

Team event 1st group stage
The Jersey team of Paul Marshall, Eugene Ellis and Trevor Lefebvre lost 3-0 to England, to Malaysia and to Cyprus. Against Cyprus No. 3, Trevor Lefebvre won the 3rd game, to lose the match 3-1.

In the 2nd group stage, with Jersey placed among the weaker nations, we lost to Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Canada all 3-0 though Eugene
Ellis took a game off his opponents from both Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka. Against Brunei Darussalam we lost 3-1 with a 3-1 win for Marshall in the 1st match, Lefebvre losing his match 3-2 and Marshall losing his second match 3-1. Against the Isle of Man we won 3-0 with wins for Marshall and Lefebvre both 3-1 and a 3-2 win for Ellis.

Individual event
Mens singles
Trevor Lefebvre lost to player from Scotland. Andrew Gallichan lost to players from Singapore and Scotland. Eugene Ellis lost to a player from England. Paul Marshall beat Peter Graham of Northern Ireland but lost to Peng from Malaysia so none of our players made the knockout stage.

Mens doubles
Ellis and Marshall lost 3-0 (11-8,11-9,11-8) to a Northern Ireland pair, while Andrew Gallichan and Trevor Lefebvre lost 3-0 to an Indian pair so neither pair progressed in this competition.