To be honest I thought I was going to be knocked out in the quarter-final.
It was 1-1 in a best of three against Bruce Rannie, from Scotland, and he had a good break in the third but made a mistake and I capitalised on it to win,’ Le Moignan said.
He then beat No 3 seed Samir Patel (England) in the semi-final to meet Mulliner in the final.
‘He was the reigning champion and has won the title three times, my only thought was that I didn’t want to be whitewashed!’ The first game was over very quickly, in 20 minutes and went to Mulliner.
Then Le Moignan hit back and won the second.
Mulliner made an error at the start of the third and Le Moignan won that, then went on to win the fourth, clearing up in just 40 minutes.
‘I think when I levelled with him he found himself under a bit of pressure, and that’s what led to the mistake in the third.
As defending champion the pressure was on him, but I won the third quite comfortably.
‘I think it was a difficult match for him, he’s vastly experienced and has been playing at the top for about 25 years,’ Le Moignan said.
‘But he was magnanimous in defeat.’ The weekend, the ninth successive year the event has been held in Jersey, went very well, he added, with Jersey’s Sarah Burrow winning the Plate competition after being knocked out of the main draw by Wales’s Cliff Jones, who was beaten by Patel in the third/fourth place play-off.
‘It was a successful weekend and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
And I’m sure the championship will come to Jersey again.
There are now 22 countries in the European Croquet Federation so the competition will have to be extended to accommodate all the teams in future.’
