Bad day at the office

AT FIRST glance, Guernsey's elite bowlers had a hard day at the office on the opening day of the World Indoor Bowls Council Championships in Belfast, losing four out of five matches. But hopes of another history-making Guernsey triumph are still high, as Alison Merrien is still hotly-tipped for a run in the women's singles and in the mixed pairs where she is defending the title with Neal Mollet.

The hard facts, however, show that Nicky Donaldson lost his first two group matches in the men's singles, that he and Carol Ingrouille were knocked out of the mixed pairs and that even Merrien lost one of her first two games.

The Guernsey duo of Ingrouille and Donaldson were desperately unlucky to lose to Margaret Roberts and Mark Walton, after winning the first end of the best-of-three-ends tie-break. England won 7-8, 13-0, 2-1.

'We know that we could have played better in the second set,' said Carol Ingrouille last night. 'But, quite frankly, we were beaten by three lucky deliveries in the tie-break.'

Firstly, after the England skip ditched the jack with an off-target drive, Donaldson seemed to have drawn the winning shot, but the depth of the ditch counted against Guernsey when the measure was applied.

Then, on the sudden death deciding end, Walton appeared to have sent the jack out of bounds, giving victory to Guernsey on the re-spot. But the jack stopped a quarter-of-an-inch short of oblivion.

Donaldson was fuming not only at the manner of their defeat in the pairs, but at the way the new sets system creates a lottery, too often placing a premium on luck rather than skill.

The Guernsey star won his first set 13-2 against Canada's Ryan Stadnyk, but was pipped in the second by a single shot 5-6, before losing the tie-break 2-0.

In his second clash againt the Englishman J. Wells he again won the first set 9-7, but lost the second and was again beaten on the tie-break, even though he played good bowls.

He has yet to play Israeli Raymond Sher, Malaysia's Fairal Izwan and Ireland's former world outdoor champion Jeremy Henry, but realistically has to win all three to stand a chance of a place in the knockout stage.

Merrien excelled in her win over the British champion Theresa Darnell-Langton, but lost a classic encounter with Scotland's experienced Margaret Letham and has a good chance of qualifying for the women's semi-finals.

Neal Mollet and Merrien have yet to launch their defence of the mixed pairs title, but are hotly-tipped to beat Holland's Guurtje Ros-Copier and Wim van Belzen for a place in the semi-finals.

*Goals by Paul Philp and Glen Catermole last night gave Rovers a 2-1 win over Sylvans in the Rouget Cup final.