Day 2 of the NatWest Open Table Tennis saw the Banded events where players are put into divisions of ability according to their ranking points.

The morning saw some magnificent performances from local players spurred on by an appreciative and partisan audience. In Men’s Band 2 Josh Band had stand out wins against players 500 ranking points higher. His victims were the number 2 seed David Arrowsmith from Derbyshire, triumphing 12-10 in the fifth, and Stephen Foster from Dorset recovering from two love down to win and reach the semi-final as group winner.

Meanwhile Max Tupper, also from Jersey, emerged from his group as runner-up with an excellent win against Nathan Bingham – another player ranked 500 points higher. Sadly this meant the Jersey duo had to play each other in the semi-final which was a hugely friendly match with some showboating for the audience eventually won by Tupper.

The final was quite different with Tupper admitting that he was given a lesson by the Scotland International Colin Dalgleish who cruised to the title 3-0.

Men’s Band 4 resulted in more success for the Tupper family as Max’s younger brother Hugo blasted away all the opposition in his group and then three knock-out rounds to claim the title against Adam Curran from Northumberland 3-0. Curran, who had squeaked past Yogi Ellis 3-2 (12-10 in the fifth in their semi), commented after that he had never seen or experienced such an awesome forehand shot as Tupper’s.

Men’s Band 6 resulted in more local success as Matthieu Fisher negotiated Steve Dickinson from Northumberland in the semi but faced another local Tom Marsay back from University and a bronze medal winner from the recent University Table Tennis Championships.

Both players had won their groups and negotiated earlier rounds with good wins against UK opposition. In the final it was Marsay who drew on the experiences of his recent wins to force errors from Fisher to claim his first Grand Prix Banded title.

Womens Band 2 was played as a five-player round-robin with the number 1 seed Sue Collier from Cheshire emerging as the winner with Jane Vickers from Derbyshire the runner-up after some tightly contested matches against former Open winner Sanja Clements from Dorset, Emma Torkington from Sussex and Sarnian Dawn Morgan.

Women’s Band 4 saw more local success with Jersey’s Super Swede Sofia Uddnas winning the round-robin of four and deservedly taking the title with Guernsey’s Beth Priest the runner-up.

The afternoon sessions provided more local success. Band 1 though was won by the classy Scot Colin Dalgleish with Derbyshire’s David Arrowsmith the runner-up, although Dalgleish had to dig into his reserves to beat Jersey’s Grzegorz Frankowski in the fifth.

Band 3 saw the four top seeds go through in their respective groups. Yildirim progressed to beat Chris Morshead to reach the semis where he was joined by Max Tupper. Hugo Tupper beat Rory Scott from Sussex to set up a showdown with Josh Band who had defeated Staffordshire’s Shaun Slater.

Yildrim made the final just in a tight five-gamer against Max Tupper whilst sibling Hugo Tupper also exited at the hands of Josh Band 3-1. The final was a great display but sadly for the local support Turkey’s Osman Yildirim sponsored by Turkish Bank took the title 3-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-9).

Men’s Band 5 did see ultimate local success though in the guise of Jack Mills whose chopping defensive style got the better of the number 1 seed Alan Taylor from Kent 3-0.

Women’s Band 1 was won by Derbyshire’s best, Emma Vickers, after a round-robin with Sue Collier from Cheshire finishing runner-up. Meanwhile, the Women’s Band 3, another round-robin event, went to Jersey’s Sofia Uddnas with Sandra Rider from Yorkshire the runner-up.