Desperques comes within a point of his record break
A SENSATIONAL 142 clearance from Martyn Desperques topped another dramatic week in the T&C Roofing Premier Division that also saw defending champions the Sledgehammers crash to a second defeat.
Desperques’ 68th competitive century came in his second frame against Steve Le Poidevin and is just one point less than his own island record set two-and-a-half years ago.
Desperques got to 83 before realising a 140-plus was on the cards, so opted to concentrate on the black for the remaining four reds to now hold the three highest breaks recorded domestically.
In terms of the match, Desperques was accompanied by Mark Gauvain’s 50 break to lead La Villette Hotel Gremlins to a six-frame advantage over RAF Reds, and there was little respite for the bottom team after that.
Charlie Browning picked up a frame on the black having lost his opener to Seb Priaulx on the same colour, while Dave Bullock got another in their 10-2 defeat.
La Villette’s high spirits were boosted even further 24 hours later when news came in of the Sledgehammers’ defeat to Ex-Service Stunners.
A dreadful opening half for the champions saw them lose the opening five frames, as Roscoe Cloarec dished out a blank to Glenn Le Prevost.
It looked as though Paul Le Sauvage was going to complete the perfect start for the Stunners, but John Skillett took their final frame 56-31 to stop the rot.
Jamie Le Cheminant staged a bit of a resurgence by taking his first two frames, which would have been matched by Danny Marquand but for his black-ball opener defeat.
It turned out to be a shared second half with Mark Gauvain going on to beat Marquand, while Ross De Carteret gained a consolation against Le Cheminant to make it 8-4.
Ex-Service Hot Butts put their recent defeats behind them to pick up a third win, this time at the expense of Imperium Strokers.
Kelvin Du Feu looks set to enjoy another productive season as he picked up his fifth win by taking all three frames against Tom Brock, but the Strokers refused to go away as Dave Gilmour matched Du Feu to comfortably gain his first 3-0 success.
The gap opened early in the second half as Tristan Ozanne and Clayton Le Noury won their openers, although the latter would ultimately be beaten by Colin Gilbert.
Alongside them, Ozanne was scoring heaviest of everyone on the night, and crucially won his last against Miles Plumley 50-45 as the Strokers won 7-5.
