Aussie here we come

ALISON MERRIEN and Gary Pitschou will be Guernsey's representatives at the inaugural World Champion of Champions event in Australia later this month. The pair qualify as Guernsey's outdoor singles champions in 2002.

Both are excited at the prospect of mixing it with the best in the game and Merrien, for one, is confident of performing well.

'I'm hoping at least to get to the quarter-finals,' said the player, who has experience of Australian rinks, having played in the World Bowls out there three years ago. On that occasion the Guernsey number one placed 10th out of 34 national representatives in the singles.

Merrien said: 'We depart on 16 September arriving in Melbourne on the 18th. We then travel to Moama/Echuca which is about two hours outside of Melbourne and we start the event on the 20th, both playing in a round-robin.'

The men's event features 14 players in both qualifying groups and the women have 12. The top four in each event qualify for the quarter-final stage.

Both the semi-finals and final will be televised on Australia's ABC and will be shown on Sky Sports at a later date.

The format for this competition is the same as has been adopted for all televised events, with matches of two nine-end sets and a best-of-three ends tie-breaker available should the sets be shared.

Other countries taking part are: Australia, Bots-wana, Brazil, Canada, England, Hong Kong, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Namibia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, S. Africa, Spain, Swaziland, Thailand, USA, Wales, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The Guernsey players have had to dig into their own pockets to fund the cost of the return flight, but they are grateful for some assistance from the States Recreation Committee.