Youngest finalists remain calm
THE island's hopes of clinching a place in the final of the British Isles triples championship in Belfast were dashed yesterday when the Merriens - Alan, Mike and Paul - were defeated 19-8 by the English champions from Yorkshire.
THE island's hopes of clinching a place in the final of the British Isles triples championship in Belfast were dashed yesterday when the Merriens - Alan, Mike and Paul - were defeated 19-8 by the English champions from Yorkshire. Meanwhile, Daniel de la Mare and Matt Le Ber took time out in preparation for their pairs final encounter this morning with the Scottish champions, George Sneddon and Keith Tait from Helensburgh.
De la Mare is only 19, and Le Ber just one year older, and the duo are thought to be the youngest pair ever to line up in a British final.
'I can't wait for the final to start,' said de la Mare. 'I'm looking forward to it, though I can't say I'm nervous.'
Le Ber agreed: 'We're both laid-back types, and we don't get too excited about things. We're enjoying relaxing today, then we'll have a couple of drinks and an early night tonight, and we'll be ready for action.'
The young guns are both from bowling families, and took up the sport at about the same time - astonishingly around 10 years ago - when they were encouraged and coached by Frank and Mavis Richards.
'We only started playing together as a pair last year, so it's fantastic to get into a British final at our very first attempt,' said de la Mare, who was full of praise for his partner's contribution to their 19-10 win over Jersey on Sunday.
'He was fantastic,' de la Mare said. 'He was on target with just about every bowl, and was walking on water.'
As for who is in charge of tactics, de la Mare nodded tentatively towards his skip, but Le Ber added with a smile: 'It's a partnership really. We get on well together and generally see things the same way. But Dan's a restraining influence on me, and keep me under control.'
If they win the title today, they will become the second Channel Islands pair to do so, following in the footsteps of Jersey's Peter Le Long and David Le Marquand, who lifted the Tom Yeoman Trophy in 1998.
The Merriens, slow to get going against Mark Walton's trio, were 10-0 adrift after six ends, but held their own after that in what was always going to be an uphill struggle.
A closer examination of the scorecard show how well the Guernsey trio marshalled their defences, because, after dropping a four on the first end, they conceded nine singles and three doubles.
Walton has proved to be one of the stars of the event so far, after taking out an enemy bowl for a winning count of five shots against Scotland in the quarter finals and he was a force to be reckoned with against Guernsey.
