Ian Ferguson and Hawley Ellicott retained their National Police doubles title with an emphatic win over the Metropolitan Police pairing of Winston Wong and Tai Luu at the Police National Championships in April. The Colebridge duo, who played together for the first time in 2023, were as ruthless in defending their title as when they first won, not dropping a single end throughout the competition.
Ferguson also continued his dominance of the veteran men’s singles, winning for the 4th consecutive year and securing his 23rd National title in total. He overcame his Veterans British League teammate Tim O’Mahoney 3-0 in a repeat of the 2023 final.
Unfortunately, both Fergie and Hawley were unable to continue their doubles success in the singles event. Hawley lost in the quarter-finals to the aforementioned O’Mahoney (Dorset Police), and Ferguson was defeated in the semi-final stage by debutant and overall winner James Hobson (Yorkshire Police), who was recently ranked 13th in England in the Men’s rankings.
As a result of their doubles and singles success over the past two years, Ferguson and Ellicott were both selected to represent the British Police Table Tennis Team at the European Police Table Tennis Championships in Prague in June. Fergie captained the men’s side for the second successive European event.
Sadly, the pair were split up for the doubles event. Fergie teamed up with O’Mahoney, and Hawley partnered with Tai Luu, which somewhat weakened the teams. Consequently, they never got the chance to showcase their already accomplished doubles pairing.
In the team event, it was a case of “so close, yet so far.” An administration error occurred at the start of the tournament, with Team GB drawn against 3 of the top 5 seeds (Hungary, Bulgaria, and Luxembourg), avoiding all the teams ranked below them. The organizers acknowledged this error after the draw had been made.
Despite this, both Fergie and Ellicott performed admirably. Ferguson won 1 out of 2 matches, and Ellicott took ends off three of the eventual men’s singles semi-finalists, even though he didn’t secure a win.
Injury forced Fergie out of the men’s singles due to a recurring back injury. Hawley found himself on the wrong end of the draw once again, facing the “group of death.” This group included three players who would all medal in the team event, men’s doubles, and men’s singles, respectively. Although Hawley took ends off all three opponents and was far from outclassed, it just wasn’t meant to be on his GB debut. Fergie stated, “Hawley can only learn from the experience, and he has the talent to win National singles titles and compete at the European level.”
Both players have been selected for the Police 6 Nations tournament, scheduled to be held in Austria in 2025. The event last took place before COVID, and the GB team aims to retain the men’s team event title.