Champion among Collins' opposition

GARRY COLLINS is looking forward to challenging for the World Indoor Bowls Council under-25 men's singles title this week. But while the defending champion Mark Casey, a talented 21-year-old from Australia, will have to endure a gruelling 24-hour flight to the venue, Collins' journey involves a mere 10-minute hop to Jersey.

The world event is being staged at the Grainville stadium, where the odds are stacked against the Guernsey youngster.

Collins, 23, has been drawn in the same group as Casey, Scottish senior champion Stuart Cruickshank and Ireland's Neil Mulholland, whom he meets first on Thursday.

To progress, Collins will have to finish in the top two in his group if he is to clinch a place in the knockout stage, which gets under way on Saturday.

After taking on Casey in a shoot-out at noon on Friday, Collins completes his group programme against Cruickshank at 4pm that afternoon.

Collins, who played in the same event three years ago when he was a relative novice, is fairly confident and says he is in top form.

'We have just started playing our own World qualifiers and I have won five out of five so far.

'We play the same format as the World and I've beaten three of our Test players - Nicky Donaldson, Paul Ingrouille and Ian Merrien.'

All matches in Jersey will be played to the new best-of-two-sets TV-style format, with a sudden-death tiebreak to settle the outcome if both players win a set.

While Casey will be defending the men's crown, Jersey's Lyndsey Greechan will be hoping to exploit her home advantage as she seeks to retain the women's title she won in Belfast last year.

Sadly, Guernsey will not be represented in the women's event, because the island's rising star, Lianna Bichard, took time off last winter to concentrate on her studies and, in her absence, no play-offs were held.

Happily, however, Bichard is back in action this winter and has her sights set on clinching a place not only in next year's world junior singles, but also the senior WIBC women's world championship.