Tournament Report

Day 1

The Championship got under way this year on the evening of Friday 28th March when the best of duo’s joined together once again at The Happy Landings to contest the Island Pairs Championship.

The field was strong and well fought as some close games ensued. It really was top-notch Pool all the way with very few surprises as eventual semi-finalists came together hoping to get their place in the final.

Semi-Final No1 was very close with frames being taken in turn by each side which saw Adam Shorto and Stan Lester take on Sam Bulmer and Kevin de Carteret to come from 3-4 behind to take the last two frames and win 5-4.

In the other Semi-Final Andy Eborall and Martyn Le Page take on heavyweights Mick Le Noury and Martyn Desperques. From 3-1 down Eborall and Le Page battled well to lead 4-3 and all to play for. In the eighth frame it looked like going all the way when the Le Noury Desperques combination got down to the black with their opponents still having 6 on the table. But a clever little snooker by Eborall saw Desperques foul and give2 away which was all that Le Page needed to gain them the win 5-3 and on to the Final.

Eborall and Le Page won the Lag and the Final was off, a race to 6 would decide the Champions. The first frame was tense as team mates discussed their options and tactics, but it was the laggers who won the first frame to go 1-0 in front. They looked to be on a roll when the second also fell to them, this time a little easier than the first. In the next Eborall had a dry break and Shorto took all of his colour to leave himself with a difficult cut on the black and his opponents with all 7, but it was Le Page who eventually stepped up to the plate and it was 3-0, then following a scrappy frame it was 4-0 and the pair were definitely looking clear favourites, and why not, they were both on fire as they missed nothing and took it 5-0.

To be fair it wasn’t as one sided as the scoreboard told it, with the Lester Shorto alliance playing some amazing shots like the last two colours and the black which were achieved with devilish dexterity, curve and swerve by Lester as he brought the score back to 5-1.

The 7th frame looked as though Eborall was going to brush his opponents but landing snookered on the black he could only play a safety shot. Shorto came up and took four of his balls but missed the next leaving Le Page an angle shot on the black into the corner which he took with ease and that was good enough to make Andy Eborall and Martyn Le Page this year’s Pairs Champions.

Day 2

The day started with the traditional early start for the ladies. Again we were to see the best women in the Island facing each other. Two ladies made it to the semi-finals by both coming from 4-0 down to win 5-4, they were Sian Jones who beat Dorota Piskorska and Sophie Dorfner who had beat Lianne Priaulx. The other semi-finalists had arrived a little easier when Ruth Vaudin beat Denise Corbet 5-1 and Rachel Chandler beat Shanine Opie by 5-0.

Both semis were closer with frames being traded by each player in turn to begin with Jones v Chandler and Dorfner v Vaudin. Eventually Vaudin and last year’s Champion Chandler both pulled away to win 6-2

The final got under way when Chandler fell a long way short on her lag leaving Vaudin to get it going but Chandler was undaunted as play went back and forth but left her to gain the first blood. A long battle on the second left it even, Chandler again inched into the front with the third, then dropped the next to go all square.

That was much how it went until Chandler began to creep out in front and retain her Crown as this year’s Champion having won 7-4

The Men’s competition was run alongside the Ladies and with a good entry this year there was lots of good pool played. The first preliminary round knocked out some hopefuls as Ashley Perriam fell to pool giant Mick Le Noury and a shock result was when reigning CI International Junior Champion James Kirk fell to unknown Richard Sutton both scores at 5-4.

The rounds that followed then went much as expected with no more shocks bringing the eventual finalists together. Craig de Carteret was there after having beat Stan Lester 9-7 having been 6-3 down at one point. The reigning Junior Guernsey & Channel Island Champion Jess de le Haye met Mighty Mick Le Noury. But it was hunger of youth that got booked into the final as de la Haye eventually and convincingly ended the game wining 9-4.

The final was now set with two competitors who had never been there before. De la Haye won the lag by a fine whisker which had to be adjudicated by referee James Kirk, both lags being within two inch of the baulk rail, he also took the first frame and the final was well under way but he failed to capitalise an open chance to finish in the second letting the 2007 Happy Landings Super Summer Pool Runner-up even it up 1-1.

What followed was an entertaining final with a display of cuemanship to be proud of.

It wasn’t a one sided final by any stretch of the imagination as De la Haye took the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, leaving De Carteret the  5th, 9th & 10th to bring the score to 6-4 in favour of de la Haye at the half way interval. Both players were buzzing and displaying pool mastery to highest degree pleasing the supporting public who had gathered to watch.

From the re-start it was de la Haye off and running again, with De Carteret only taking one more in the 13th leaving de la Haye to become not only the youngest ever Island Champion in the 16th with a score of 11-5, but also the first to hold both Senior AND Junior titles at the same time, which will surely be a record which will stand for a very long time.

And just for the record books, the record that young Jess has now set is achieving this magnificent double at the age of only 17 years 181 days.

That just leaves the Junior and Mini-Junior Championships to sort for this year which will take place in May.