This Is Guernsey

SATURDAY afternoon’s snooker Upton saw Jersey come away with the trophy for the first time since 2001 as Guernsey’s Premier Division champions Gremlin Galacticos took on Jersey’s 147 A, bolstered by the addition of Gary Britton.

With both teams boasting four Channel Island champions between them, some high quality snooker saw the Jersey league winners prevail 8-4.

The early stages were dominated by the Galacticos making the most of home advantage to take the first two frames through Adrian Lihou and Glenn Le Prevost, but it wasn’t long before their respective opponents, Chris Alexander and Aaron Canavan, hit back to level the match.

Lihou re-established the Galacticos’ lead, but it was short-lived, with Canavan’s 64 break proving decisive against Le Prevost.

The second half of the match pitched Adam Shorto against Britton in a repeat of the 2000 CI final that is still talked about today, while Karl Le Fevre had a chance to put his own CI disappointment of the previous night behind him against Paul Le Sauvage.

Playing some accomplished snooker, Britton put the 147 A into the lead for the first time and when Le Fevre made it 5-3, the Galacticos knew they were in trouble.

A fine 46 break from Shorto cut the deficit to one frame to restore hope, but faced with a difficult snooker, Le Sauvage saw an 18-point deficit increase to an irretrievable 49 after repeatedly being called for a foul and miss.

Moments later it was all over as Britton matched Canavan’s 64 break for an unassailable lead and Le Fevre added a fine 41 for good measure to leave another of Galacticos’ title hopes in tatters.

In addition, the Guernsey snooker team will now be acutely aware of the task that awaits them in defending a run of six inter-insular victories, as all four 147 A players will be in the Jersey side at the Mechanics on Saturday.

There was more disappointment for Guernsey when they lost to Jersey in the team billiards inter-insular.

Jersey triumphed 3-2 after an enthralling contest at the Sporting Club.

Playing up to 250 for the first time, the pivotal moment in the match came when, on 247 each, Martyn Desperques missed a shot on the red following a majestic break of 46.

His Jersey counterpart, Alexander, scored to win their thrilling encounter and put Jersey 2-1 ahead.

The clash was a dress rehearsal for Friday’s Individual CI Billiards Championship in Jersey and there was some blistering potting from both players to suggest it will be quite a contest.

The match had started so well for Guernsey with Peter Colley taking the first rubber against Jersey’s Guy Heys.

The latter had held a lead of 185-135 at one stage, aided by an excellent break of 48, but then Colley used his vast experience to fight back and won in style 250-209.

While Colley was putting Guernsey on the board, on the second table Sarnian captain Barry Pallot and Jersey’s Martyn Le Gallais were battling it out for the second year running.

Pallot trailed by 30 points at one stage before battling back to lead 175-155.

But Le Gallais regained control to avenge last year’s defeat, 250-225.

At the same time as Desperques was taking on Alexander, Guernsey’s Mark Jeffreys was playing Jersey snooker champion Le Fevre.

Although notoriously a slow starter, Jeffreys held his own early on to trail 44-54 and was little more than 30 behind when Le Fevre passed halfway.

But a best-of-the-night break of 53 took Le Fevre to 245-127 in front and the decisive third rubber was sealed soon afterwards.

The final pairing had little to play for other than pride as Shorto faced former Jersey champion Mick Mahrer in a repeat of the 2004 CI final.

As then, Shorto’s greater potting skills eased him to a consolation 250-129 victory that included three breaks in the 30s.

Article posted on 24th April, 2007 - 12.00am