2010 Island Magic Touch Doubles
Dorothy and Gordon De Gruchy retain their trophy !
Gordon and Dorothy de Gruchy yesterday retained their Magic Touch Island Doubles Trophy with excellent play throughout the event!
The twenty teams were divided into four groups and played each team in their group with the group winners progressing to semi finals. Three of the group winners won three of their four games; Joan and Dennis le Mercier with point difference of +27, Elaine and Fred Paisnel with +20 and Linda Taylor and Ken Vibert with +19. However the de Gruchy’s won all four of their games convincingly; the highest score against them being 6 and they also had wins of 13-1 and 13-0 (overall +42!) thus setting out their intention of a place in the final from the outset. Three of the teams in the de Gruchy’s group won 2 of 4. The best of these were Rita Le Brocq and Keaven Taylor with a net +10 followed by Maggie and Tony Allchurch -5 and Julie and Darren Brown -12. Penny and Ian Foster completed this group.
In the Le Mercier’s group there were also three teams with 2 wins. Chris Pinel and Neil Selby +7 were the only pair to beat the Le Merciers. Newer players Toby Northern and Ross Payne gave a good showing with 2 wins -9 and Mary and Niall Fennessy had 2 wins -16. With two close misses but just the one win were Chris Romeril and Keith Boleat.
The Paisnel’s won their first three games but then succumbed to Joan and Lyndon Lewis 10-13. The Lewis’ played well and also won 3 games but a bad loss in their first game reduced their points difference to just +1. Alain Aoutin and Alan Tostevin (in his first championship) won 2 games -1, Mick Cotillard and Darren Le Brun won only one but narrowly missed a second win by 1 point. Barbara and Dave Grover won 13-0 in their first game but never quite retained this form and were unable to secure another win.
The semi final between the de Gruchys and Linda and Ken was once again a convincing victory for the title holders 13-4. The other semi saw the Paisnels move ahead but once on 12 they played many ends to try to get the vital last point to win. The Le Mercier’s came right back to 12 all but finally the Paisnel’s managed to win the end and take the place in final. This game had just about everything and really could have gone either way.
The final saw the Paisnels take the early points, but then Dorothy and Gordon steadily pulled away and despite having two or three goes at clinching the game, they won 13-7 to become the first pair to retain the championship.
Runners up Elaine and Fred Paisnel