After singles, Alison is ready to take on world
ALISON MERRIEN reinforced her position as Guernsey's leading bowler by adding the island open singles title to her impressive CV with a fine win over Ricky Brehaut.
ALISON MERRIEN reinforced her position as Guernsey's leading bowler by adding the island open singles title to her impressive CV with a fine win over Ricky Brehaut. Merrien opened with four doubles over the first four ends and although Brehaut forced his way back into contention to trail 14-9 after 13, Merrien finished strongly to come out on top by 21 shots to 10.
The highlight of all the singles over the Giba finals weekend was the under-18 match between Kris Bichard and Todd Priaulx, which took 27 ends to complete and resulted in a Bichard win, 21-16.
It was a quality match that saw both young bowlers drawing extremely well and could be followed easily, as Bichard's yellow bowls and Priaulx's maroon ones were so conspicuous.
The quality of the game bodes well for the future and is reward for the efforts that the players and their coaches have put in over the last season.
The under-16 singles saw Jacob Fitch face Thomas Mahy and they put up a very mature display, all the more remarkable because they have yet to reach their teens.
Fitch's red bowls just held the edge over the second half of the game and from nine-all at 12 ends, he emerged the 21-14 winner.
Two of Guernsey's best bowlers, Mollet and Craig Dorey, contested the under-35 singles and the quality did not disappoint.
An excellent drawing game from both players saw the scores level at nine each at 10 ends and level again at 17-all at 19 ends, thanks to Dorey's score of four.
Mollet picked up a single on the next and finally a three to emerge 21-17 victor.
Paul Ingrouille faced Shirley Petit in the over-35 singles and after a few loose ends from both players, Ingrouille settled into his drawing game and triumphed 21-5.
Elsewhere, Dave Lock put together an excellent scoring sequence to defeat Stan Simon 21-10 in the veteran singles final while Norman Gavey edged a tight superveteran contest against Peggy Fish 21-19 and Gary Pitschou claimed the famous singles 21-16 against Ingrouille.
In an intriguing open pairs, Ricky Brehaut and Lianna Bichard got off to a fine start against the Ingrouilles, Paul and Carol, but the husband-and-wife team recovered to book their place in the Channel Islands final 15-14.
The married pairs saw Ian and Alison Merrien in sensational form as Paul and Shirley Petit had to concede after 11 ends with the score 27-4.
The Merriens started at the same blistering pace in the mixed pairs against the Ingrouilles, but they had to resist an impressive comeback to finish narrow 18-15 winners.
The kith and kin pairs saw 12-year-old Fitch partnered by his grandfather, Brehaut, and they proved too strong on the day for the father and son combination of Alf and Paul Ingrouille, winning 20-16.
Another father-and-son combination, Dave and Thomas Mahy, went down 16-15 to Ray Pratt and Jean Simon in the two-wood pairs while the Australian pairs saw Terry Duquemin and Chris Dyer emerge victorious 24-19 after 21 quality ends against Jon Wallis and Steve Le Noury.
The target pairs went to five sets and although the Le Noury brothers, Mike and Steve, won the first two sets comfortably, they succumbed to a Pratt and Ralph Deakin fightback.
Mahy and Kris Bichard came out with the two shots they needed on a replayed final end to edge an epic juniors final against Ben Marley and Priaulx 14-13.
The highly successful Rebels team of Mike Le Noury, John Wallis and Steve Le Noury earned the right to play in the CI triples final with a 20-12 victory over the Mafia (Alan, Alison and Paul Merrien) after an 11-shot unanswered scoring sequence put them in the driving seat.
However, the Mafia's fours team (Wallis, Paul, Ian and Alison Merrien) did taste success as they comfortably defeated Raiders (Lock, Richard Hill, Pitschou, John Martel) 25-11.
Lynn Small, Gwen de la Mare and Tish Duquemin led 17-13 after 16 of the 18 ends in the drawn triples, but a fine score of four levelled the match for Mac Timms, Peter Harris and Ivor Perry and left all to play for. However, the Small-de la Mare-Duquemin combination was to be victorious with an 18-17 scoreline thanks to a single on the final end.