Having previously won in 1994 and 2001, he finally lifted his long-awaited third Guernsey Brewery Trophy after beating Roscoe Cloarec 5-0 in the showpiece match at North Social Club.
The 24-year gap between titles is the longest period in the event’s 94-year history, beating the 19-year wait that Glenn Le Prevost had for his two crowns.
‘To have the trophy back after so long, I’m still pinching myself,’ the 53-year-old said.
‘It’s something I never thought I would see again.’
The North Social again created superb conditions as the two players took nervously to the well-prepared tables in front of a decent-sized crowd.
An understandably cagey start to the best-of-nine final ended with Le Sauvage taking what proved to be the closest frame of the night on the pink, after Cloarec had led for most of the way.
That appeared to take its toll on Cloarec, who would have been looking for a fast start, as Le Sauvage’s opening 25 break soon made it 2-0 in conceding just eight points.
That was followed by a 30 in the next, but while Cloarec was again in contention on the colours, Le Sauvage was at his clinical best in clearing to pink in what would be the overriding trend of the night.
The fourth frame saw Cloarec well-placed to get his first foothold into the final by building a slender lead with two reds left on the table.
But after Le Sauvage hit back and Cloarec’s escape from a snooker saw him go in off the green, a third perfectly-controlled clearance to pink made it 4-0.
The pattern continued as Cloarec’s early 25 helped the score along to 36-35 in his favour until Le Sauvage took the final red with a pink to follow.
A long-range yellow from Cloarec missed the target and, from the leftovers, Le Sauvage held his nerve from similar range to clear up to pink once more and claim his third title as just reward for a player who has found some scintillating end-of-season form.
However, the victor admitted the final scoreline was ‘a bit flattering’ to him.
‘It was not a 5-0 game,’ he said.
‘There was a few close frames that could have gone either way.’
Le Sauvage had also gone in feeling ‘ready and prepared’ after an epic semi-final.
While Cloarec received a bye due to an injured opponent, the champion-to-be had come from behind and edged Adam Shorto 4-3.
‘My win against Adam in the semi-finals, that was up there with my finest achievements.
‘Me being 3-1 down and in a best of seven, he had one foot in the final, but I stepped up and played some really good, solid snooker.
‘I was really chuffed. Once I got to that point, I knew that this was a very rare opportunity to get my hands on the trophy a third time.’
Still exceptionally busy with important matches for this late stage of the season, Le Sauvage has now also booked his ticket into Friday 24 April’s Channel Islands final, which will take place in Guernsey.
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