Shorto ‘delighted’ after retaining island crown for first time

In a feat that bodes well for his fast-approaching Channel Islands title duel against Aaron Canavan, he defeated the mighty Martyn Desperques 5-2 in Saturday night’s Island Championship final at the Ex-Service Men’s Club.

This brings his individual Guernsey title tally to eight and, at the same time, prevented Desperques from claiming a record 13th.

The first three frames were not particularly befitting of this clash of titans, though.

They collectively took almost two hours and lacked significant breaks, with even the island’s two current snooker giants failing to create any real momentum.

Shorto nevertheless won them 62-33, 51-20 and 55-42. The latter required him to conjure a winning 18 break after being behind until that point.

Desperques finally found some inspiration in the next frame and, in a complete reversal, dominated it 88-12.

The more decorated of the two players then took the fifth 61-23 to clip Shorto’s advantage to 3-2.

Just when his classy rival appeared to be finding his stride, Shorto hamstrung him with an impressive 83 break – well over twice the size of anything seen to this point of the match – with Desperques not logging a single point in that frame.

From the brink of victory, Shorto did not slip up and managed to take his final frame 68-2.

‘I felt really tired about halfway through that match,’ the winner said.

‘The first few frames were so scrappy and close, and they took it out of me.

‘I was feeling a bit lethargic. Martyn started coming back at me, so for me that frame where I made the 83 break was massive.’

When all was said and done, Shorto was ‘delighted’ to come away with the title.

It backed up his success last year against first-time finalist Ross De Carteret.

‘It was a great win – any win against Martyn is a great win,’ he said.

‘He was not quite on his game tonight. I think he would be the first one to admit that.

‘In a way that puts me under more pressure – we do not get that very often and I have to take advantage.’

The freshly-crowned champion takes on Canavan, who he calls a ‘class act’, in Jersey this Friday in the Channel Islands final.

Shorto will be driven to achieve a different outcome after a cruel 5-4 edging last year.

‘I’m chuffed to have another shot at it,' he said.