Merrien chalks up another national title with protege

GUERNSEY'S young Lianna Bichard and 30-year-old Alison Merrien won the British Isles women's indoor pairs title for the Channel Islands at Prestwick yesterday. After a slow start they came through strongly to defeat Jealian Willis and Wendy Morris from Wales, 17-9.

Afterwards, a joyous Merrien leant back in her chair in the Prestwick club lounge and said: 'That honestly means as much to me as the British Isles singles title I won in Bournemouth three years ago.

'I've still got the same feeling: a mixture of pride and disbelief,' she smiled, looking over to her young lead: 'It's absolutely great, Lianna - we're the British champions.

Bichard, a 19-year-old trainee accountant with MeesPierson Reads, had earlier played superbly in the semi-final of the under 25 singles, losing 21-17 to Ireland's 23-year-old Catherine Beattie, who won the world under-25 mixed pairs title in Jersey last November.

'I must admit I felt tired after giving everything in the singles, and I didn't play as well for Alison in the final as I had in the previous games,' she said. 'But Alison more than made up for that with some brilliant conversion shots.'

On their way to the final, the talented Guernsey duo had raced into early leads against the English and Scottish champions and had closed both games down to win comfortably.

But it was a different story in the final.

The Welsh pair led 5-2 after six ends and 8-7 after 11 and there was nothing to suggest that either side would run away with it.

On the 14th end, however, a typically audacious drive from Merrien took out two potentially scoring bowls, setting up a count of four for Guernsey. Although the Welsh skip Morris drew third bowl, the turnover was two-for-two.

Essentially, that put Guernsey 11-8 up instead of being 9-10 down and gave them the initiative which they never surrendered.

'Alison really was a thorn in our side,' said Welsh lead Willis. 'She was brilliant. You could say she was a pain in the butt.'

Indeed, from 7-8 at 11 ends, Guernsey allowed their opponents to score only once - a single on the 17th end and the experienced Welsh duo threw in the towel after 20 ends when they were eight shots adrift.

Teams from Jersey won the British triples and fours titles for the Channel Islands in 2001 and Merrien memorably won the singles in 2002, but this is the first time that the pairs title has come to the area.