Stacey successfully defends his crown
LAWRENCE STACEY completed a near-perfect defence of his Channel Islands Top 12 trophy on Saturday.
The in-form player maintained an unbeaten run in the recent local qualifier and only faltered in his very last match of the two-part programme, losing 3-2 to Jersey favourite Leon Pierre in last weekend’s inter-island round at the GTTA Centre. Pierre had also gone unbeaten in his local qualifier.
Overall Stacey graduated with a nearly spotless record – winning 10 of his 11 counting matches across the two competitions – to repeat last year’s title success on Jersey soil.
Teammate Ben Foss took that second spot on countback from Pierre, both having lost only twice all competition.
‘I’m very happy with how I’ve played, both in the qualifier and in the main event today,’ the winner said.
‘Very happy to win it for the second time in a row.
‘It would have been nice to end on a high and to win all of the matches, but Leon played really well, so I can’t take anything away from him and he deserved to win the match in the end.’
In that final match, the Sarnian had edged the first set 14-12, only to lose the next two. He nevertheless took the fourth 11-8 to force a decider.
The other players had by then gathered around to watch Stacey, who fell five points behind in the middle of the decisive set after a few punishing errors but then played some patient table tennis to close the gap to two, before losing 11-8.
But the 2022-23 Senior Group and Whistlers Open winner still left in high spirits.
‘I probably saved some of my best table tennis for today and the qualifier,’ he added.
‘This has probably been the event where I’ve played the best overall – it’s always useful to save it for the right time.
‘It’s been a fairly good season for me.’
Second-placed Foss had a perfect run in Saturday’s stage, beating all the Jersey players but suffering the repercussions of his two losses on local soil last month.
Alice Edwards (nee Loveridge) has shown that she can still run with the best of them on her comeback season and had another solid tournament, placing fourth.
Both had helped Stacey seal the title by beating Pierre – in Foss’ case, a straightforward 3-0 victory.
Jersey’s Grzegorz Frankowski and Eugene Ellis completed the top six.
While the visiting Caesareans had a few smaller victories to celebrate, Guernsey remain the driving force in the Top 12, having won the individual title every year from 2017 onwards.
