Former TT champions still have it

Kane Watson and Christopher Marsh are near the back-end of their playing careers, but recently, these former national table tennis singles champions discovered they still have the touch. Watson and Marsh, one-two at the 2022 Nationals, joined forces with 2023 winner Mark Phillips to put an all-Jamaican team within touching distance of the divisional players at the North American Team Championships in Washington late last month.

After a slow start, the team - 4Yardies and a GT - won three of their five encounters in the preliminary group stage and vaulted into the third of 17 divisions. The Jamaicans then stepped on the gas winning five of their 7 division three group matches. Unfortunately, they lost a place in the semifinals on count back as the other team with a 5-2 record had defeated them. To add salt to the wound, Phillips and company earlier defeated the eventual runner-up, Mad Green, 5-2.

Watson and Marsh, who have seven Jamaican national titles between them, participated to support Phillips in his pursuit of international experience and shocked themselves.

“I even surprised myself out there with some of the level I played at because from when I started playing table tennis, this year is the least I’ve ever played the game,” Watson reported upon his return to Kingston.

Watson, now 36, went 7-2 in his preliminary group matches and 14-3 in the division three group the team found itself in.

Marsh had the same experience and held his own.

“I was pretty much surprised, and Kane as well, in terms of the level of play we were playing,” the 47-year-old lefthander confessed.

The other member of the team was United States-based Michael Henry.

Watson and Simon Tomlinson won a double silver at the 2017 Caribbean Championships and Watson hinted at ambitions he still has.

“There is something still left, maybe something I haven’t done in my playing career because I know I can compete with them, playing wise,” he said.

A big issue is whether Jamaica would go to the next tournament. “Over the years, it’s never sure if we’re going,” he said.

Jamaica skipped this year’s Senior Caribbean Championships, which was held in Guyana.

Watson, who was a Jamaica team coach at the 2018 Caribbean Regional Pre-Cadet tournament in Kingston, thinks the island’s young stars would benefit from competing at the North American Teams event in the future. Asked if he planned to play next year, he replied, “I’m not really looking forward to it because, trust me, it’s a lot of table tennis but if I do go, I’m looking forward to go with a team of more juniors because I see where it would help with their development. I would definitely play, but if I’m going back, it’s with a team or two of junior players.”

He sees himself playing, but wants to share his knowledge with the next generation.

“To put my experience with them, that’s what I’m looking forward to,” he said.