Fours beat Malaysia

Guernsey's challenge in singles and fours ran into problems in the women's world outdoor bowls championships at Royal Leamington Spa yesterday, but Anne Simon's quartet finished the day on a high note. A 23-13 win over the Malaysians is quite an achievement these days, because, although bowls is still quite new in Malaysia, the government has made it a priority sport, and they have become a world power.

Jean Simon, Gwen de la Mare, Eunice Trebert and Anne Simon were therefore expecting a hard game, and it turned out to be exactly that until the completion of the seventh end, when Guernsey had their noses in front at 5-4.

A barrage of shots from the Sarnians changed the whole complexion of what had been a close encounter, and four ends later - after a profitable 2-2-2-5 sequence - the score was 16-4 to Guernsey.

If they became complacent, they were soon set back on their heels as the talented Malaysians fought back with a double, a single and a six to close the gap to just three shots at 16-13 after 14.

But the Guernsey quartet re-imposed their grip, and set off again, scoring three successive singles, and stamped their authority with a count of four on the very last end.

Earlier, they had been beaten by Botswana, who did most of the damage over the first four ends on their way to a 20-11 victory. Guernsey opened with a single, but the Africans, skipped astutely by Lynda Houghton, replied with two fours and a three to lead 11-1, before Simon's team had settled down.

Scoring on the next three ends, Guernsey looked more confident, but another spree from Botswana put them 18-6 ahead after 12 ends, and although Guernsey scored on five of the last six ends, they were restricted to singles, and lost by nine shots.

With two sessions to play, the Guernsey four are in fifth place in their group league table, and have effectively lost their chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals, but wins over New Zealand and Hong Kong would help them climb the table to challenge for a higher place in the pecking order.

In the singles, Jacqui Nicolle had a bye yesterday morning, and came up against the Japanese representative, Junko Tahara, a 41-year-old associate professor from Kobe, after lunch.

Having played in the world championships when they were last staged in Leamington eight years ago, Tahara is an experienced player, and she led throughout, 6-0 after three ends, 15-6 after 10, and 16-11 after 13.

Stretching her lead to 20-11, Tahara dropped a double on the 17th, but sealed a 21-13 victory on the next end with a winning single.