This Is Guernsey

By Gareth Le Prevost

The Guernsey team, from left to right, Glenn Le Prevost, Graham Peel, Adrian Lihou, captain Adam Shorto and John Skillett. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0570876)

ICE-COOL Adam Shorto was the toast of the Gremlin Club in the early hours of yesterday morning as Guernsey regained the Lt-Colonel R. W. Randell Challenge Cup.

An epic inter-insular encounter came down to a sudden-death, winner-takes-all frame, the sides having finished level at 5-5.

It was the Guernsey champion and first-time island captain Shorto who held his nerve to see off a formidable opponent in Gary Britton in tremendous style 79-8 to put the icing on the cake of a heroic performance from the underdogs.  ‘I actually felt all right [going into the play-off]. I felt more nervous in my first match of the night,’ said Shorto, who had taken the number-one slot in the team line-up.

‘When it is just one frame, anything can happen. It usually comes down to who gets the first opportunity and luckily I was fortunate enough to get it.’

And Captain Marvel grabbed it with both hands.

He opened with a sensible, risk-free break of 24, just taking advantage of the loose reds before reverting to safety, and followed it up with an effort worth 32.

Britton knew the frame was slipping away quickly, but he hardly got a chance to save it.

When one did crop up, he missed a long red as he tried to force position on a colour.

Shorto did not let him back in and the gracious visitor offered his hand in congratulation at 1.08am.

The extra frame victory meant that Shorto had contributed half his side’s six on the night, having opened with a 2-0 win over Karl Softly.

The initial encounter was an indicator of what was to come as virtually every frame was understandably scrappy, yet enthralling.

Short had trailed 35-62 during the opener before getting fortunate as, he inadvertently laid a snooker of his own when escaping one of Softly’s.

That was the catalyst for him to take the frame as his opponent failed to add to his points tally.

A well compiled 46 early in the second frame put the Guernsey captain in control and he never relinquished the lead to give his side the ideal 2-0 start.

However, Britton hit back for Jersey in the next encounter versus Glenn Le Prevost.

The home player fought valiantly but was never given the opportunity to get anything going in either frame against the three-time CI champion.

Britton made breaks of 33 and 32 in his 2-0 victory.

Adrian Lihou, who had been a bundle of nervous energy during the first couple of matches, had the unenviable task of facing the newly crowned CI champion and Jersey captain, Aaron Canavan, in the middle rubber.

It was the visitor who eventually got a decent chance in a patchy first frame, making the highest break of the night with 59 to put his side into the lead for the first time.

Lihou’s response was excellent, though, and he never looked back from an opening effort of 28 in the pivotal sixth frame.

He went on to win it comfortably by a 61-point margin and that was to prove absolutely vital.

The suggestion to Shorto immediately after that result that the match had sudden death written all over it did not go down too well.

‘I don’t even want to think about that possibility yet,’ he said with a nervous grin.

But at that stage there was an undoubted inevitability about it.

Graham Peel left it late but vitally he mirrored Lihou’s effort in coming from a frame down to draw with Ray Kilmartin.

The Jersey left-hander led all the way in the opener to edge his side ahead once more and then took a 46-0 lead in the second.

Peel never looked flustered, though, and kept plugging away, helped by a break of 28.

Crucially, he held his nerve at the vital moment to pot brown, blue and pink and level things once more at 4-4.

With everything riding on the final match-up between John Skillett and Chris Alexander, the players could have been forgiven if they were a bit jittery.

The Sarnian thrived on the situation, though, and with breaks of 35 and 14 in successive visits, he opened up a healthy 61-14 lead.

Alexander had no intention of throwing in the towel and responded with an excellent snooker that gave him 21 points in fouls and he continued to chip away until he remarkably took a 68-61 advantage.

However, a missed pink kept the frame alive and after Skillett had sunk it to move within a point, there was a titantic safety battle on the black.

It eventually came to an end when Alexander got a double kiss on it to leave Skillett with a golden opportunity, which he gratefully accepted after a few deep breaths.

Alexander looked devastated to have lost that one, but he made amends in the next thanks in no small part to a couple of well laid snookers to send it to that most dramatic of conclusions.

‘It was really close,’ admitted a delighted Shorto. ‘It is very hard to get anything going break-wise when you are playing only two frames. It is just about being as solid as possible.

‘We thought if we played well, we could take them, especially with home advantage. To be fair, they hammered us last year, but we always fancied ourselves to put up a much better performance this time.

‘It is an absolutely brilliant way to end the season – we are all chuffed to bits. We had a disappointing weekend in Jersey when we lost the “Upton”, I lost the CI final and we also lost the billiards, but to win this makes amends for those.’