Desperques reaches the perfect 10 titles

The coveted 10th arrived in Saturday night’s final against Glenn Le Prevost and with the record dozen of past legend Norman Wale now in sight, the current star’s latest triumph proved a memorable if unconventional one.

The August heat permeated the Gremlin Club and reminded of the delay caused by lockdown – a springtime final being the norm – and with it, the play warmed up towards an epic final frame.

It was there that Desperques confirmed his victory with a 5-2 result in the best-of-nine match.

The scrappy opening frame was, thankfully for him, not a sign of things to come.

Out of the inevitable rust came a 38 break from Le Prevost and that would not be matched for over an hour.

Desperques was struggling to find his feet initially and the two-time past champion finished strongly to take the frame.

Yet a competitive second frame saw Desperques level the scoreline after a nervy finish and the more decorated player then rattled off the next two with relative ease.

Le Prevost retaliated firmly in a tighter fifth, before Desperques’ early-doors 41 largely killed the sixth.

Match point, so to speak, and frame seven started in nip-and-tuck fashion before Desperques produced a leading break of 47.

Le Prevost answered with a promising-looking rally – one that ended at 35 after a late blunder – but, some minutes later, Desperques had confirmed his title.

Title number 10 – though that was not on the forefront of his mind at the time.

‘I do not really look at things like that, but double figures is very impressive in my eyes,’ said Desperques.

‘There’s a good pool of island players at the moment and there has been for the last 10 years, so it’s a good milestone.

‘Glenn’s a very good player and it was tricky conditions tonight. We’re not used to playing in August but we were quite lucky to be honest, as it could have been warmer.’