Thrilling win for Guernsey
Guernsey’s snooker team completed the inter insular series with another thrilling win on Jersey soil. Under the revised format introduced ten years ago, the closest matches have come from across the water, and the latest provided yet another gripping finale.
With the teams locked at 11-11 in the best of 25 matches, John Skillett comprehensively beat Jeremy Gogan 83-23 to put Guernsey on the brink and pave the way for Paul Le Sauvage to seal the win. The island champion came into the match with three inter insular runner up medals to his name, but there’s few others you can count on just as much to hold their nerve in such a tense atmosphere.
And so it proved to be, as Le Sauvage calmly stroked in a 42 break made mostly from pinks, that built a commanding 60-0 lead against Brett Campbell with just five reds left. Jersey’s second seed simply had no answer and, fittingly given the exceptional season he’s had, Le Sauvage ran out a 72-15 winner to clinch the trophy with a match to spare. For good measure, Adam Shorto defeated Aaron Canavan 70-56 to make the final scoreline 14-11, and run out as the only player to win all his five matches.
The fact that the Guernsey captain’s last match against the 12 time Channel Island champion proved to be a ‘dead rubber’ owed much to the collective effort of all the team, but arguably none more so than Jamie Le Cheminant’s opening match against Canavan. Few would have given Guernsey’s fourth seed any hope against the Jersey star, especially on the Mechanics Institute tables, but Le Cheminant brilliantly won a safety exchange to then hold his nerve by clearing from brown to pink for a dream start.
That put Guernsey 2-0 up and it was the same two frame gap that they held at the conclusion of the afternoon matches. An 8-6 lead owed much to Shorto and Le Cheminant winning three apiece, as the latter also defeated former CI champion Karl Le Fevre and Shorto survived a scare against Gogan, 55-53.
The evening session saw Darren Hughes get his second win, but Le Sauvage suffered consecutive defeats through Le Fevre’s 47 break and Canavan’s 64. Guernsey found a reply as Skillett put his three earlier losses behind him with a fine 42, whilst a 49 from Shorto made it 11-9 going into the one-table set up. A 66 from Le Fevre reduced Jersey’s arrears, and they finally gained parity when Matt Cox profited from the miss rule to clear from the green in beating Le Cheminant.
That set the stage for Skillett and Le Sauvage to take the two frames Guernsey needed and retain the Lieut-Col R W Challenge Cup much to the delight of the visiting Sarnians.
Jersey 11, Guernsey 14
Matches won
Jersey: A. Canavan 3, K. Le Fevre 3, J. Gogan 2, M. Cox 2, B. Campbell 1
Guernsey: A. Shorto 5, J. Le Cheminant 3, D. Hughes 2, J. Skillett 2, P. Le Sauvage 2
Breaks: K. Le Fevre 66, 47; A. Canavan 64, 51, 47; A. Shorto 49; J. Skillett 42; P. Le Sauvage 42