Games worries as vets top the table

THE veteran players of St Andrew's A are surprise Men's Division One leaders at the halfway stage in the Fuel Supplies senior leagues season. With each team having played five matches, they lead defending champions and pre-season favourites Rohais A by 10 points.

St Andrew's have shown much greater consistency in their pairings: surprise island champions Keith Enevoldsen and John Stuart lead the individual standings with 28 points and their team-mates Martyn Barbe and James Domaille are second on 17.

Rohais have chopped and changed their pairings due to injury and people travelling and generally shown a lack of the consistent play required at this level.

It does not bode well for the Island Games team if the top players are unable to display any kind of consistency when a bit of pressure is applied, particularly by opponents who are all well past 40.

Rohais A currently lead both Women's Division One and Mixed Division One, but in the latter they have played one more match than second-placed St Andrew's.

The women's division will be settled between Rohais and St Michael's, who are nine points adrift, but with Lisa Hayward and Kath Stuart leading the individual pairs table by six points, it is hard to see St Michael's clawing back the deficit.

Mixed One will go to the wire between favourites Rohais A and St Andrew's A, and all the second half matches will be vital.

New island champions Quentin Petit and Lisa Hayward are the leading pair, but the former will be on holiday when the teams go head to head in the first match of the second half.

In the lower divisions, St Andrew's B lead in both Men's and Mixed Division Two, but Pessimists B are only a single point behind with a match in hand in Men's Two.

Chris Thoume and Stuart Hardy have lost only a single game - certainly the surprise package pairing of the men's leagues.

Only injury should prevent St Andrew's taking Mixed Two, as they lead by 12 points, and their Gregg and Angela Stuart and Chris Golding and Sarah Cumming pairings are first and second respectively in the pairs table.

Women's Division Two is being dominated by colts. Charlotte Koller and Vicky Naylor have improved almost beyond recognition from last season and lead the pairing table from Katie Pierce and Steph Stuart.

Men's Three looks to be going to Vale Rec but Sunbeams D could still catch them. Women's Three is dominated by Pessimists B, while their D team are 12 points clear in Mixed Three. Shuttlebusters B head Mixed Four by 13 points from their own A team.