Mollet through, but shock exit for Merrien

THE great news that Neal Mollet has qualified for the quarter-finals of the men's singles at the WIBC world singles event in Belfast was tempered last night by Alison Merrien's shock failure to reach the last eight of the women's event. This morning the Sarnian duo take on top Aussies Di Cunnington and Steve Glasson for a place in the pairs final in which Merrien is hoping to repeat the success she achieved with Adrian Welch three years ago.

Merrien, who was disappointed to lose in her first singles match, kept herself in contention with a good victory over Malaysia's Norhashimah Ismail, but slipped up in her third group game, losing on tie-break to England champion Theresa Darnell-Langton.

'I'm disappointed, of course I am, but at least it gives me the chance to concentrate on the pairs,' said a philosophical Guernsey champion last night.

But it was Mollet's performance that set the greens alight, when, after trouncing the Isle of Man's John Alderson in his opening game, he added a narrow victory over Welshman John Roberts and a big win over Malaysia's Zuraidi Puteh.

Mollet's scorecard against Roberts was quite remarkable, because both the first and second sets were tied and everything depended on the now familiar best-of-three-ends tie-break.

The Guernsey star did well to score a double to take the first set 7-7, but could hardly believe it when, after turning a 2-5 deficit into an 8-5 lead with two trebles, he dropped a treble on the last end of the second set for an 8-8 tie.

Fortunately, he took charge of his own destiny, winning the first two ends of the tie-break for a strange-looking 7-7, 8-8, 2-1 victory.

It was one-way traffic against the Malaysian.

Mollet opened with a double, a single, a full house and another single to lead 8-0 after only four ends and he pressed home his advantage to win easily in straight sets, 11-2, 9-2.

In today's quarter finals, Mollet will face Jersey's Allan Quemard ahead of the crunch mixed pairs.