Island Championships 2020 - Day 2

Post date: Nov 15, 2020 10:38:58 PM

The second day of the Championships on Saturday saw the largest schedule of events, with a whopping 8 of the total 20 contested.  

This culminated with the flagship Men's and Women's Singles events during the evening, in a fitting way to end the day's action.

Evening Session

Men:            Joshua Stacey (2) bt Phil Ogier (3)        Full results

Women:      Dawn Morgan (1) bt Kay Chivers (2)      Full results

Men's Singles

After an evening of entertaining encounters, the largest draw of the Championships ended with a new name on the trophy. 2nd seed Josh Stacey was the player to come through as victor by battling past 7 time former winner Phil Ogier over 6 sets. Stacey had previously reached the Men's Singles final in 2015 when he lost out in 4 close sets to Joshua Butler, but this time around he made no mistake with some excellent attacking strokes, many of which came off the bounce as counter top-spin strokes.

Stacey had enjoyed a comfortable run up until the final, just dropping a single end to Steve Ozanne in his first match of the evening. He defeated the in-form Sam Clark in straight sets in the Quarter finals before producing an excellent performance to dispatch 4th seed Ben Foss in straight sets in the semi finals.

Ogier also navigated his way to the final with relative ease as he reached the semi-finals without having dropped a set, overcoming 7th seed Matthew Casey 4-0 in the quarters. His opponent in the semi finals was 5th seed Paul Hainsworth and after a few tight deuce games, he powered through over 5 sets.

Hainsworth had minutes prior produced the shock result of the Championships thus far due to his lengthy 7 set triumph over the number 1 seeded defending champion and in-form player Lawrence Stacey.

Elsewhere in the draw, there was a notable scalp for Clark against 8th seed Tomlin over 5 sets which prevented all 8 seeds reaching the expected quarter final stages. Surprisingly there was only the 1 match previously noted which reached the full 7 sets, however 6th seed Ryan Bichard needed 6 ends to get past Andy Gill in the Last 16.

Women's Singles

There was a familiar feel to the final as it came between the 2 most decorated winners of this event in the form of 21-time champion Dawn Morgan and 18-time champion Kay Chivers.

It was the top seeded Morgan who made it title number 22 after she overcame Chivers over 5 sets. Chivers had earlier come through a closely contested 5 set encounter with 4th seed Charlotte Casey, whilst Morgan was a comfortable straight sets winner over Becks O'Keefe in the other. O'Keefe had picked up a nice win of her own in the Quarter finals where she battled back from 2-1 down against 3rd seed Paula Le Ber to win in 6 sets, with the decisive 6th ending with an incredible 19-17 scoreline.

Morning SessionUnder 11:             Oskar Cleal (1) bt Cameron Powell (2)        Full results

Under 13:             Oskar Cleal (2) bt Jack Gilbey (1)                Full results

Under 15 Boys:   Ben Sharp (1) bt Jayden Tucknott (2)          Full results

Under 15 Girls:   Shelby Timms (1) bt Emily Gavey (2)           Full results

Over 50:               Dawn Morgan (1) bt Mark Pipet (2)              Full results

Over 70:               Terry Trustum bt Ken Falla                            Full results

Under 11 Open Singles

Number 1 seed Oskar Cleal made the perfect start to his day by winning the Under 11 Open singles title courtesy of a 5 set victory against 2nd seed Cameron Powell. The duo had picked up 4-0 wins over the unseeded pair of Luke Evans and Barnaby Groves respectively.

Under 13 Open Singles

Cleal continued his excellent form by capturing a further title in the Under 13 Open Singles event. He was even more dominant in this as he did not drop a set during his win over top seed Jack Gilbey in the final. Gilbey had earlier battled past 4th seed 

Jamie Regan in 6 sets, whilst Cleal had beaten Alex Hutchinson in straight sets.

Under 15 Girls Singles

Top seed Shelby Timms picked up her first title in this category after her straight sets victory over 2nd seed Emily Gavey in the final. The win saw her replicate her elder sister Tia who had won the title in this category last season.

Under 15 Boys Singles

his Under 15 Boys singles crown by defeating 2nd seed Jayden Tucknott 4-1 in the final.Top seed Ben Sharp successfully defended 

Sharp and Tucknott had earlier earned matching straight sets wins over fellow seeded players Alex Paul and Connor Powell respectively.

Over 50's Open Singles

Earlier in the day, Morgan had been busy winning another title, with her triumph in the Over 50's Open Singles being her second in this category and her first since 2015.

She had a tough affair with second seed Mark Pipet in the final, but held her nerve well in battling back from a 2-1 deficit to win over 6 sets. She had endured a similar battle in the semi finals against 3rd seed Andy Gill, in what was a repeat of the final from last season. This was also won over 6 sets following the first 4 ends being shared. Pipet defeated 4th seed Martin Sarre in other semi final in straight sets, although 2 of these ends were won 12-10 and 15-13.

Over 70's Open Singles

It is an extremely rare occurrence to have not one, but 2 unseeded players in the final of any Island Championship event, however Terry Trustum and Ken Falla made sure of this happening in the Over 70's Open Singles event after each had upset the seedings in the semi final rounds.

With neither player having clinched this title before, there was always going to be a new name on the trophy and it was Trustum who came through strongly in 5 sets, having dropped the opener. Trustum had knocked out top seed Keith Opie in 5 sets in the semi final, whilst Falla edged past 2nd seed and prolific 10 time winner Ian Fitchet over 6 sets in the other, 12-10 the narrow margin in the decisive 6th set.