Fours teams double up on gold

THERE was double gold for Guernsey in the bowls finals yesterday evening. The men's four of Dan de la Mare, Richard Hill, Ian Merrien and Paul Merrien defeated Jersey 23-11.

The women's team of Gwen de la Mare, Shirley Petit, Carol Ingrouille and Angela Bartie were 23-7 winners over the Isle of Wight.

They had to beat Jersey in their final group match to earn the right to play for the gold medals.

But the women produced their best performance of the Games and never looked back after scoring five shots on the first end.

Jersey had narrowed the gap to 10-7 after seven ends, but skip Bartie, who had a great match, led her team to score on the next six ends with a four, a three, a two and three singles as they ran out 22-9 winners.

The women also beat Ynys Mon 30-5 and Alderney 21-6.

Against Alderney, both teams drew to the jack well, but Guernsey had the greater accuracy and their opponents were able to score on only five ends.

The men had a relatively comfortable path to the final with victories over the Western Islands, the Shetland Islands and Alderney.

The Western Islands were undone by Guernsey's tactic of playing short jacks as the Sarnians ran out 34-9 winners.

Shetland had plenty of support on their own rink and raced into an 8-1 lead, but again the short jack tactic paid off and Guernsey picked up 15 shots over the last six ends to win 22-10.

Guernsey notched up six on one end as they strolled past Alderney 28-7 to reach the final.