Dodd fires his way to win in battle of the big guns

GARRY DODD won the top gun shoot out as he beat defending champion Scott Romeril in the Spot for Sport final. Romeril, who is also the current Channel Islands title-holder, was arguably the favourite going into the match against his island teammate although they are closely matched.

Romeril took the first set, but Dodd showed his fighting qualities in a scintillating encounter in which both produced some stunning shots as he won the next three games to take the honours.

Earlier, the groups and first round matches had played themselves out much as expected, with the seeded players from the seven groups all coming through to the quarter-final stage without any problems, although Mark Fallaize struggled initially with the pimpled defence of wily veteran Charlie Elliott.

The first quarter-final saw Romeril up against teammate Fallaize and while the latter did well to take a game, the reigning champion was always in control.

Young pretender Oliver Langlois took on former island champion Peter Bretel in what was one of the matches of the evening. It seemed over when Bretel went into a 2-0 lead, but Langlois had other ideas. With some amazing retrieving and up-to-the-table hitting, the youngster came away with a 3-2 victory.

Next up was the match between Dodd and the elder of the Langlois brothers, Adam - a classic battle between left and right-handed players.

Initially, it seemed to favour the right-handed Langlois as he went into a 2-0 lead but Dodd fought back with some sublime table tennis to prevail 3-2.

The fourth quarter-final saw previous winner Phil Ogier win in three straight over Neil Hastie.

The younger Langlois made life difficult for Romeril in their semi-final as both attacked the ball with great flair. Eventually the more experienced player came out a 3-1 winner.

In contrast, the match between Dodd and Ogier was not only a clash of left versus right but also of styles as the former prefers all out attack while Ogier relies on his amazing retrieving skills to wear down his opponents.

Unfortunately for Ogier, the power of the left-handed loop and top spin drives of Dodd was too much for his back-hand retrieving defence and Dodd emerged a 3-0 winner.