2007 ISLAND SINGLES
The 2007 JPA Island singles championship took place in very wet conditions at Samares Manor on 17th June. A total of 44 players took part, playing in four groups. The heavy rain made the surface very challenging and was altering all through the day as the ground got wetter or dried out.
As he did last year, Darren le Brun topped his group with 8 wins from 10 games, and one of the two who beat him was Dennis le Mercier who also won 8 and was runner up in the group with a points difference of +29 to Darren’s +33.
While Elaine Paisnel’s only defeat in her 10 games was to Matthew Pinel, she narrowly beat him for first in the group with +34 to Matthew’s +31. Matthew also lost just the one game, this time to Sid Simkin.
In Group C two players won 8 of their 10 games; Joy Hart topped the group with an impressive +58 to Alf le Masurier’s +27.
Finally Ken Vibert was the clear winner of Group D with 8 wins from 9 games, while Michel Morel also qualified for the quarter finals with 7 wins.
In the quarter finals Matthew Pinel continued his fine form to beat Darren le Brun 13-6, and Michel Morel showed good form to beat Joy Hart 13-8. The other two quarter finals were closely contested with Elaine Paisnel beating Dennis le Mercier and Ken Vibert beating Alf le Masurier both games finishing 13-10.
The semi final saw a re-match between Elaine Paisnel and Matthew Pinel and the youngster was once again victorious with a resounding 13-3 win to take him into the final. Michel Morel also had a convincing win of 13-5 over Ken Vibert.
In the final Matthew Pinel started well gaining a 4-1 lead, but Michel Morel pulled this back and progressed to 9-4. Matthew held his game well and moved to within one point at 8-9 before Michel once again pulled away to lead 11-8. Matthew took full advantage of the one ‘bad end’ Michel played and took all three points to equal the score at 11 all. Michel then gained one point on the next end, before Matthew played two excellent shots to grab the victory by just one point 13-12 at the end of a very high quality final.
See more photos in the gallery.