2013 Spot For Sport Tournament

Channel Island number 1 Garry Dodd (pictured) continued his local dominance with victory in the Lions Spot for Sport tournament held earlier this week. His 5 game victory over fellow Lions player Paul Hainsworth in the final secured his 3rd consecutive Spot for Sport triumph. Dodd wasted no time in the opening group stage of the tournament as he blitzed past the experience of Maurice James and Peter Powell for the combined loss of just 13 points over the course of the 6 legs played.

2nd seed Hainsworth had the exact opposite start as he surprisingly faced a deficit of 2-0 in his opening group match against the rapidly improving junior Ben Foss. Foss looked the sharper player going into the 3rd game, however Hainsworth managed to steady the ship and his extra experience helped him power through the remaining games to prevent the surprise early defeat. His form improved as the group stage continued as he dispatched 2nd division players Chas Elliott and Juliette Yeaman without loss to finish as group winner. Pimple bat defender Elliott responded superbly to his defeat to Hainsworth as he proceeded to defeat Foss in 4 games, eliminating the talented youngster from the competition at the same time.

3rd seed Jez Powell was a late withdrawal and Martin Sarre was the replacement player who looked destined to top the group. He defeated Peter Vivian and team-mate Ian Le Page, however he was defeated for a 2nd time this season to another rapidly improving junior player, in the form of Chloe Le Tissier. Le Tissier had beaten Sarre in the league earlier this season and she maintained her good record against her elder opponent by winning in 4 games. Her prior victories over Vivian and Le Page ensured that she qualified as group winner.

4th seed Liam Robilliard made smooth progress from his group with victories over Len Bretel, Ian Fitchet and Carl Le Tissier, the latter pair each wrestling a game off the 1st division player in the process. It was Le Tissier who joined daughter Chloe in the knockout stages due to his straight game wins over Fitchet and Bretel.

His reward was a Quarter final clash with Dodd where he put up a good account of himself, before going down in 4.

In the same half of the draw, Chloe also put in a good performance against the tricky Elliott, whose pimple bat defence can trouble higher ranked opposition. Despite winning the opener, Le Tissier was unable to maintain the attacking consistency required to defeat Elliott, who finished off the match in 4 games to make the penultimate stage of the competition.

In the bottom half of the draw, Hainsworth and Robilliard ran out comfortable straight game winners over Maurice James and Marin Sarre respectively. The Lions C team-mate’s semi-final clash ended as a straight game victory for Hainsworth, with Robilliard uncharacteristically failing to find his range and gain a foothold in the encounter.

Elliott’s run came to a sudden halt against Dodd, whose merciless form restricting the St Pauls veteran to just 4 points in the other semi.

The final was evenly matched for the opening 3 legs as Dodd clinched 2 of the first 3 ends, which were all won by the narrow scoreline of 12-10. 3 time finalist Hainsworth battled back to take the 4th 11-6 to force a decider, which was also closely contested throughout. Dodd’s extra quality proved decisive on the big points and he closed out the encounter 11-8.