Below: Craig Gascoyne held match point in a tremendous final against home favourite Johan Pettersson on Saturday (00734178)

CRAIG Gascoyne came close to silencing the capacity crowd that turned out for the men’s table tennis final at the Island Games on Saturday.

Taking on home favourite Aland’s Johan Pettersson, a former European No 15, Gascoyne at one stage had match point, but eventually lost out to the top seed in the seventh game.

In what was a mammoth match on a showpiece court Petterson started the strongest and won the first game 11-8 before Gascoyne fought back to win the next three 11-8, 12-10, 11-6 thanks to strong serving and masterful tactics.

However, with the stands full of home support Petterson responded to take the match to 3-3 and into a deciding set which featured some impressive rallies in what was easily the match of the day.

At 10-9 Gascoyne, the third seed, was one point away from victory and from taking revenge having lost to the Aland player in the team event 3-1 but his opponent fought back to win 13-11 and take the title.

Gascoyne, Jersey’s table tennis development officer, was naturally disappointed after the match but appreciated he had been part of something special. He said: ‘It was such a buzz out there with that crowd. I felt like I played well but there were patches when it could have been better and I could have been more positive on certain points but my serves were going well and he was struggling to return.

‘In my head I was going for gold and taking it one match at a time but it’s hard to lose especially as I had match point – to go that close is tough to deal with.’

There were two other medals on the final day as Nicola Duke, the second seed, won a silver medal in the ladies’ singles although it came with a loss to the top seed, with Gotland’s Evelina Carlsson winning the final 4-1 (12-14, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8, 11-2).

Craig Gascoyne and Kay Lefebvre lost their mixed doubles semi final to the eventual gold medal winners, Annika Ahlgren and Johan Mattsson from Gotland, 3-1 (11-9, 11-5, 2-11, 11-8) to leave with a bronze medal.

Coach Clive Hansford said: ‘The week has been fantastic and if you had said before we left that we would be in this many finals and win five medals I wouldn’t have believed you.

‘With the current standard at the Island Games it is definitely the best performance from Jersey in table tennis and it just shows that all the months of training have paid off as well as the work that Craig is doing as development officer.

‘The performances have been great and we have a lot of juniors watching which can only help for the future. The next stop is the Isle of Wight, so gold medals please.’