Lions Spot for Sport

Post date: Feb 12, 2020 7:54:49 PM

Joshua Stacey continued his relentless form in obtaining the Lions Spot for Sport Tournament crown at the GTTA centre.

Stacey has picked up a plethora of titles over the past few months and this included the prestigious CI Open Top 12 crown in January.

The win in the Spot for Sport tournament culminated in a narrow 5 set win over twin and current Island Men’s Singles champion Lawrence, who has been a regular competitor in recent finals.

The Stacey twins were 2 of the 6 seeded players that successfully and expectedly made their way through the Group stages and then onwards to the Quarter Finals stage.

2nd Division player Craig Dunning gave 6th seed Ryan Gilson a tough test in the Last 16 stage and only narrowly went down 15-17, 14-12, 13-15, 8-11 to the left-hander.

Gilson was to go no further as he was comfortably beaten by top seed Ben Foss for the loss of just 9 points. Lawrence breezed past surprise Quarter Finalist Shaun Mosley in straight sets, whilst Joshua defeated Andy Gill in straight sets.

The final quarter final encounter saw 3rd seed Phil Ogier against 5th seed Paul Hainsworth and it was the latter who earned a surprise 4 set win on the night.

Lawrence and Joshua both had similar semi-final battles with each overcoming their Lions opposition in 4 sets. Lawrence shared the first 2 ends with Foss 12-10 before powering through the 3rd and 4th ends 11-7. Joshua weathered an early storm from Hainsworth and after dropping the opening game, he battled back strongly before holding his nerve to edge the 4th end 12-10.

The final was a well fought encounter with both players showing the full repertoire of their shots. Defending champion Lawrence looked to be in the driving seat when leading 2-1, however Josh dug deep and his confidence from his recent winning run was evident during the fightback. The 4th set was well contested, but Josh upped his level considerably in the decider and played some exceptional shots in powering through 11-4 and claiming his first Spot for Sport crown.  

Results