2011 Island Magic Touch Open Triples
Today’s competition attracted 14 triples which were drawn into two groups, playing all in that group.
The Blue Group appeared to include many favourites yet ironically, it was the white group which produced the two teams who contested the final!
Keaven and Linda Taylor with Rita Le Brocq topped the blue group losing only to Lawrence Rondel, Darren Le Brun and Mick Cotillard, who in turn only lost 2 games. Second in this group were Michel Morel, Helene Retrosi and Chris Romeril who won the trophy in 2009. They won 4 games. A new triple of Maggie Allchurch, Gill Fowler and Steve Foster won 3 of their 6 games to finish third in the group. It was very unfortunate that Andrew Le Breton became unwell during the day and this left Toby Northern and Callum Stewart a player down after their first three games.
In the white group Dennis and Joan Le Mercier played with Bill Perry and they started the day in style with a 13-0 win! They continued in this form losing only to Brian Mollet, Roy Langlois and Maurice Richard by the narrowest of margins 12-13. Needless to say they won the group, despite Dennis having lost the sole of his shoe during the morning!
Ian and Penny Foster with Gerald Rolland were runners up with 4 wins out of their 6. Fred and Elaine Paisnel with Tony Allchurch came back well at the finish to secure 3rd in the group and two relatively new teams: Ross Payne, Anthony Di Santos and Jake Romeril and Andy Limerick, Alan Lahiffe and Alan Huelin also won half their games. Finally, a mention for the only all ladies team Lorna Limbrick, Joan Poignand and Wendy Luce who played well and persevered to improve with each game to win their last one of the day.
Semi finals
In their semi final the Keaven, Linda and Rita got off to a very slow start and as their opponents pulled steadily away, they found themselves 0-12 down. With all to play for they finally got off the mark and gradually came up to 5-12 before losing out 5-13.
The second semi was much closer with each team taking the lead at times and the match was finely balanced with the teams at 8 all. Dennis, Joan and Bill then took 3 points on the following end to bring them is sight of victory, which they got on the next end, beating Michel, Helene and Chris.
Final
The final too started with each team taking just a point or two until Ian, Penny and Gerald moved from 2 all to a 5-2 lead. Dennis, Joan and Bill retrieved this in the next end and moved ahead themselves to 6-5. It was again anyone’s game as the score moved on to 8-9. However, in the next end Ian, Penny and Gerald left the end wide open after all their boules were played and Dennis, Joan and Bill were holding 4 points but just failed to place their final one to win the game. Inspired by the chance of having another end to play, Ian Penny and Gerald managed to get the four points they needed to snatch the victory 13-12 and become the 2011 Magic Touch Island Open Triples champions.