2011 Island Magic Touch Doubles
JEREMY GRIGG AND KEITH PINEL ARE CHAMPIONS!
Twenty pairs took part in today’s Magic Touch Island Doubles championships in stormy conditions at the Weighbridge. Gordon and Dorothy De Gruchy who have won this trophy for the past two years were hoping to make it a hat-trick of wins, but it was not to be.
The teams were drawn into groups of 5 and played each in their group; the top team in each group then going on to the semi finals. In group one none of the teams were able to beat Jeremy Grigg and Keith Pinel who stormed their way through their four games with a creditable +35 net points! Lawrence Rondel and Tommie Glennie gave them their hardest game only losing to 9. Lawrence and Tommie were runners up in this group with two wins +6. Also with two wins were Toby Northern and Colin Myers -5 and Steve and Paula Foster -8. Making up group one were Linda Taylor and Graham Follain who were playing together for the first time.
In group 2 Lyndon and Joan Lewis won their first three games but were beaten in their final game by Fred and Elaine Paisnel. Keaven Taylor and Rita le Brocq also won three – only losing their game to the Lewis’. With a superior points difference of +26 to +13 it was Keaven and Rita who topped the group. Fred and Elaine Paisnel finished with 2 wins and -4 and Ian and Penny Foster also with 2 wins and -14. Joy Hart and Maggie Allchurch completed group 2 and just missed out on a win to the Fosters by one point!
Group 3 winners were Michel Morel and Helene Retrosi who won 3 games with (unusually) a minus net points score of -2. Three teams won 2 games; Ken and Jeanne Le Brun with an impressive +11, Keith Badeley and Richard Sowerby with net 0 and Neil Selby and Chris Pinel with -7. Frank Morel and young Jake Romeril secured just one win but were in double figures in two more games. They did have some excitement though as a seagull flew down to steal their cochonnet in the game against Neil and Chris! Deciding it was not good to eat, the bird dropped it 2 or 3 feet further on, still on the playing area and so the game continued!
Two teams in group 4 were absolutely tied at the conclusion of the round robin – three wins each and both on +16!! The result of the match they played against each other was the deciding factor and thus Mick Cotillard and Darren Le Brun went through to the semi finals ahead of Chris Romeril and Keith Boleat. Third in the group were Marc Nicol and Matthew Pinel with 2 wins and -8. Gordon and Dorothy De Gruchy and Derek Hart and Tony Allchurch each won one game.
Semi finals
Helene and Michel started well with 4 points on the first end followed by another 3 on the next. Keaven and Rita finally got on the score board at 1-8 and went on to gradually catch up to 8 all. However Helene and Michel then moved ahead again with another 4 on the next end; not to be outdone, Keaven and Rita got 4 points on the next, levelling again at 12 all. Helene and Michel then won the deciding end and their place in the final.
Keith and Jeremy also made a good start with 4 on each of the first two ends. Mick and Darren – winners in 2008 – then won a point to settle the nerves. However, Keith and Jeremy did not let up and took a further 2 points on the next end before their opponents doubled their score. It took one more end for Keith and Jeremy to complete their task and take the second place in the final.
Final
The final started slowly with both teams playing well and keeping things tight. After 5 ends Helene and Michel were leading 4-1. In the next however the teams were level at 4 all, Keith and Jeremy having shortened the length of the cochonnet. They pulled further ahead to 7-4 before a thrilling end with much firing. Keith and Jeremy had played all their boules when Michel fired a front boule to make a gap for his partner to add to their scoring boules only for the cochonnet to go with the fired boule, resulting in his opponents holding 3 points! Michel then fired again and this time finished up holding one point.
With the match at 10-5 to Keith and Jeremy, there was a dead end when Keith fired the cochonnet out of the playing area. The following end the first boules from each team were equidistant. Teams then play alternatively until one team is holding and it took 6 boules before the deadlock was broken. At 7-10 Michel was holding one point and fired to gain 2 more but pushed the cochonnet back and ended up losing one point. Keith and Jeremy made sure of victory 13-7 in the next end.