Sarnian players dominate the major honours at KGV

Paul Le Gallez got his weekend off to a great start as he landed his first Guernsey Masters title by avenging a couple of runner-up finishes to Trevor Gallienne this season.

Both had eased through their respective groups, but came through trickier semi-final assignments with Le Gallez beating Craig Harvey and Gallienne getting the better of Mat Ogier.

During the final both struggled on the fast playing top and neither was able to use their opening breaks to take any sort of initiative.

However, in the second game Le Gallez managed to put together a decent break where he got lucky after nearly pegging on his final shot.

Gallienne was unable to reply and so Le Gallez was able to claim the title.

Gallienne would later avenge this himself with a victory in the Guernsey Open Pairs.

He teamed up excellently with former league player Paul Mason to beat Le Gallez and Ian Champion in the final late on Saturday afternoon.

Le Gallez and Champion had progressed to the final after beating some notable pairings along the way, including England player and former Guernsey player Martin Smith and Bob Chapple.

Gallienne and Mason advanced to the final against Guernsey newcomers Mark Fraser and Anita Blackman, who also picked up the women’s high break and was the female player to progress furthest in the singles.

The final of the pairs plate was won by Tony Cross and Dave Jones beating Tony Jenner and Rick Cunningham.

On the Saturday night, the Guernsey select side beat the England Ladies 33-11.

In a new addition to the weekend of the Guernsey Festival, organiser ran a full International eight versus eight, with four pairs matches and eight singles.

Guernsey may have dominated the points, but there were a number of games that could of gone either way.

The home team was ably captained by Roy Le Page who also played in the Guernsey-Jersey reserve team match, beating Harry Barbet.

In the main Guernsey-Jersey match, the hosts took the honours but the visitors have closed the gap, as aggregate score tipped the balance in Guernsey’s favour with the score at 3-3.

Gallienne got the ball rolling with a straightforward victory over Nigel Ryall with just over 9k advantage.

Ryall managed to get a small break, but Gallienne won 10500-1650 to put Guernsey aggregate score in a good place.

Darren Ogier then lost to Dave Lomax, who all but played the table time out with 7k and left Ogier no time to record much score. The game finished 7220-480 in Lomax’s favour and reduced the aggregate advantage.

The in-form Le Gallez easily beat Jenny Noel following a comfortable opening break after which he knew he just had to keep his opponent’s opportunities to a minimum. It finished with 4200-1370 to put Guernsey 2-1 up and stretching the aggregate win again.

Mat Ogier then managed to win the first game of the night against the break.

In a much tighter affair Ogier overcame Sean Le Beauvant 5230-3160.

With Guernsey now on the verge of victory, Paul Dyer was looking to avenge last year’s loss to Emma Noel.

However, despite leading by over 3000 points and not enough time for Noel to win, Dyer suffered a rush of blood and tried to cut a ball into the 200 hole.

He black pegged and handed his opponent the advantage and she managed to secure the victory with the final shot in the 200 to win 260-220.

With the match firmly in the balance, Graemme Le Monnier had to win by a margin greater than 6970 in his game against Ian Champion for Jersey to snatch overall victory.

Le Monnier had the opening break and started off well, but he was unable to get near the score needed for an aggregate win.

Champion managed the game well, made sure he kept his score and left difficult shots for the Jersey player when he returned to the table.

Despite the loss, Champion’s game proved to be pivotal and gave Guernsey their fourth victory in a row over Jersey.

In the following day’s Open Singles, Guernsey again punched above their weight in the world of bar billiards and proved the transformation the local game has gone through in recent years is now bearing fruit.

Bob Chapple overcame former winner Dave Ingram in the final to claim his second title to add to the one he took in 2014.

Along the way Chapple had to beat two locals in the semi and quarter-finals – Trevor Gallienne and Ben Wilding respectively – as well as John Slee, Nevile Blackman and Rick Cunningham.

Ingram’s route to the final was also tough as he beat fellow England players Dave Jones and Martin Smith as well as two Jersey players Nigel Ryall and Sean Le Beuvant along with Guernseyman Robbie Help.

The Plate final was between England internationals Joe Oakley and Martin Cole, both of whom are former winners of the Guernsey Open.

n The Guernsey team travel to the UK to play a full International against England Men tomorrow. With a slightly different set up this will be a tough task for the Guernsey team.

Two local women will also travel and team up with two from Jersey to form a Channel Island team to face England Ladies at the same time and venue.

Guernsey men’s team to play England

Darren Ogier (captain), Paul Le Gallez, Ian Champion, Leon Ogier, Luke Bush, Adrian Bush, Chris Bourgaize, Kyran Perkins, Robbie Help, Bob Chapple, Ash Harrison.

CI women’s team to play England Ladies

Claire Gauvain (Gsy), Carla Allen (Gsy), Jenny Noel (Jsy), Emma Noel (Jsy).