Nigel Webb won the Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA) national team trial at the University of Technology Auditorium yesterday and will represent Jamaica at this year's Commonwealth Games in Australia in March, along with Gavin Hylton and Darryl Strachan who finished second and third respectively.

The 12 leading players in Jamaica by rank contested the 11-match trial which was played over two days in a round-robin format. Webb, who returned from a lengthy coaching stint in China last year, emerged winner with a 9-2 aggregate from the 11 matches he played.

Nigel Webb (left), Gavin Hylton and Darryl Strachan (Photos: Hurbun Williams)

Hylton also finished with a 9-2 aggregate but was relegated to second spot after posting an inferior win-loss sets average to Webb.

Strachan, like Hylton, who was a member of the all-conquering Kingston College table tennis team of the mid- to late-1990s, booked his place after defeating Dale Parham 3-1 in his final match and Ludlow Bailey brushing aside Joseph Dibbs 3-2 in their final match.

Had Dibbs gone on to win his final match against Bailey, he would have been selected ahead of Hylton.
Bailey, who hurt his chances by arriving late for his match and lost by default, ended with a 7-4 aggregate to finish fourth ahead of Peter Moo Young who also scored a 7-4 aggregate to finish fifth.

Dale Parham, also a member of an earlier all-conquering KC team and at one stage led the trial 3-1 in matches, was sixth with a 6-5 aggregate ahead of Dibbs whom he beat 3-1. Dibbs also posted a 6-5 aggregate.

Samuel Lamount and Christopher Marsh finished eighth and ninth respectively after winning only five of their 11 matches. Kane Watson finished 10th after Phillip Drummond and Oneil White did not turn up for yesterday's second day of the trial after failing to win a single match on the opening day.

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