Clayton Coates defeated Paul Le Sauvage 500-336 in the Channel Islands Billiards final at the Jersey Mechanics recently.
A new name on the trophy was guaranteed with both playing their first CI final, and it was the Guernsey champion that started brighter with breaks of 27 from his first visit and 29 building a 103-61 lead.
But from that point on, Le Sauvage struggled to find any fluency, whereas Coates hit a purple patch that saw him make several 20 plus breaks mid-match which gave him an interval lead of 258 v 194.
The restart started slowly with no player really hitting any consistent form until Clayton made a 22 break to increase his lead to 308 v 228. Soon after, Clayton had a 28 break to slow down Le Sauvage’s mini comeback to hit the 400 mark, leading by 81 points with the finish line of 500 in sight. And with a 37 unfinished break at the end of the match, Clayton ran out winner by 500 v 336.
President Byron Le Cornu congratulated both players and presented the trophy to Clayton and also gave thanks to Howard Smith for referring and Karl Le Fevre who ran the in-match scoring.
Clayton Coates 500, Paul Le Sauvage 336
Breaks: C. Coates 37u, 31, 28, 28; P. Le Sauvage 29, 27
