2011 Island Magic Touch Singles
JEREMY GRIGG ADDS SINGLES TO HIS DOUBLES TITLE!
The Magic Touch Island Petanque Singles was played on Saturday 2nd July at the Weighbridge Gardens.
Young Jeremy Grigg – one month short of his 19th birthday - won the Trophy in fine style having last month won the Island Doubles Trophy too!
The 27 players were drawn into four groups and played all in their group, the winners of each group then playing semi-finals.
The Green group was the smallest with six players and Gordon De Gruchy made it his; beating all in his group. His toughest test was against Joan Le Mercier whom he only beat 13-12 and Joy Hart also pushed him hard before losing 11-13.
Runner up in the green group was Ken Vibert with 3 wins out of five. Brian Corbel, Joy Hart and Joan Lewis each secured 2 wins. Apart from her loss to Gordon, Joan Le Mercier also lost two of her matches to 11 points; so near, yet so far!
Also unbeaten in his group was Neil Selby. Lyndon Lewis pushed Neil all the way but lost 12-13 and Matt Ryan got to 11 points. Tony Northern, a previous finalist, won 4 of his 6 games with some big margins, but ironically became Penny Foster’s only conquest! There were three wins each for Lyndon Lewis, Tom Glennie and Matt Ryan and both Penny Foster and Tony Lagadu got one.
No-one won all their games in the white group but Mick Cotillard, who has often qualified through group stages, was only beaten by Helene Retrosi 13-6. Helene is turn won four games but was pipped for runner-up position by Dennis Le Mercier who had a better points difference, +26 to +15. Last year’s champion Tony Allchurch won 3 of his games, Dave Grover and Michel Morel won 2 and Chris Romeril won one, perhaps ironically, against his fellow Vagabonds team member, Michel Morel!
Jeremy Grigg came storming through the yellow group with wins to 1 and 2 along the way. The only one to prevent him making it a clean sweep was Ian Foster who beat Jeremy to 3. Ross Payne and Derek Hart both won 4 games; Ross with a creditable +28 and Derek with +14. Teenager Jake Romeril also made a stand for the younger players, winning half of his games. There were 2 wins for Ian Foster and Keith Pinel and Richard Sowerby had a tough day, losing two games to 12, one to 11 and one to 10!
Neil Selby proved too strong for Gordon De Gruchy in their semi-final, Gordon not being able to get into his stride after a long wait; Neill winning 13-3. In the other semi, Mick Cotillard pushed Jeremy all the way and just lost out 11-13.
Jeremy recovered from this challenge quickly and with his consistent placing and relaxed manner took 9 points before his opponent got on the scoreboard. He went on to a 13-3 win to take the Trophy for 2011.