THE two surprise semi-finalists fell at the penultimate hurdle last night in the Island Individual Snooker Championship. At the Gremlin Club, defending champion Adam Shorto survived an excellent fightback from Graham Peel to win 3-2 while Martyn Desperques overcame Jez Rowe 3-0 to set up a third successive island final between the two tomorrow night at the North Legion.
Shorto was particularly relieved to get through.
Having gone 2-0 up with a 58 break included, he watched as Peel made a 57 of his own and then claim the fourth before the champion edged home.
‘It is a bit nerve-racking trying to defend the title as it hasn’t been done for about 19 years, but half the battle is to get to the final,’ Shorto said.
Both the players knocked out in the last four can feel justifiably proud of making it to that stage.
In the quarter-finals, Peel, who has endured a difficult season with the Chirpers, found himself two frames behind against teammate Adrian Holley but he managed to put all that behind him to win three on the trot to earn a meeting with Shorto.
Unseeded Rowe also upset the form book in the quarters by ousting Glenn Le Prevost.
A 3-1 victory came despite Le Prevost’s break of 64.
The finalists of the last two years progressed through the last eight without dropping a frame.
Shorto needed a first-frame black-ball re-spot to get past Ian Platt, while Desperques beat John Skillett.
Desperques entered the week on the back of securing one island title and notching his third century break of the season.
A repeat of last season’s Island Billiards Championship final saw him defend his crown by the same score against Peter Colley.
As last time, Desperques tried playing true billiards in the first frame but despite holding a 39 advantage at one stage, Colley fought back well to take it. Desperques’ strengths are his potting and positional play and he drew on those to good effect to make two breaks of 38 in winning the final two frames.
In the Norman Wale Handicap, a 100 clearance followed by a second frame break of 53 saw Desperques book a semi-final spot at the expense of Ricky Dodd.
The Norman Wale has produced some sparkling breaks this season, with Desperques having already made 122 against Le Prevost and Shorto 117 in beating Roscoe Cloarec.
The final league matter was resolved when Kevin N. de Carteret won the Billiards Handicap play-off at the Ex-Service.
Playing in his debut season, de Carteret beat Mike Hall 200-169.
Article posted on 11th April, 2007 - 12.00am
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