French Imports 2006 JPA Singles Championship
The clear winner in Group A was Darren le Brun who lost just one of his games, to Chris Romeril who was placed second with two losses. 2005’s runner up Tim Bechelet performed well in this group. While he won only three games, the three he lost were each to 13-11.
Group B’s outcome was dependant on Mary Whittaker’s last match against Frank Morel. Morel took a convincing 13-2 victory, thus there were 3 players with the same number of wins. Robert Birch topped the group with a points difference of +25, followed by Morel +20 and Whittaker +6.
Derek Hart topped Group C losing only one game, ironically to the only junior competitor Matthew Pinel. Helene Retrosi placed second with just two losses.
Two players lost only one game in Group D. Dennis le Mercier’s only loss was to Gordon de Gruchy, who in turn was only beaten by newcomer Chris Satchwell. However de Gruchy took the semi final place with +19 to le Mercier’s +14.
In the semi finals Robert Birch took an unassailable lead against Gordon de Gruchy. From a score of 12-2, de Gruchy pulled back to 12-6 before Birch got the final point he needed to go through into the final.
The second semi-final saw Derek Hart gradually pull ahead of Darren le Brun, securing his place in the final with the winning score of 13-7.
In the final Derek Hart continued to show the high standard of play that he had produced all day, both in his placing and firing. Despite a valiant effort by Robert Birch he found himself convincingly beaten 13-1 by the worthy 2006 Jersey Petanque Association Singles champion.