Bichard boys shock established combination

THE young Bichard brothers have underlined that the bowls talent in their family is not restricted to their elder sister Lianna. With a combined age of 34, the Bichard lads have qualified for Sunday's island pairs men's final, which carries the added prize of a place in the CI finals.

GIBA president Paul Ingrouille says he has known for some time that the two, Shaun (16) and Kris (18), were emerging talents to be reckoned with and to prove it they took the scalp of Dave Trebert and Matt Le Ber.

The youngsters dropped a three on the first end but were never in trouble after levelling the scores on the second and ran out comfortable winners by 25 shots to 8.

Ingrouille is delighted to see them make exciting progress.

'They are the future,' he said.

'They are proving themselves to be very good.'

And they will have to be to clinch the title.

The final pits them against Nick Donald-son and Neal Mollet who put out Steve Desperques and Craig Dorey in their own semi.

Mollet led well, but Donaldson made his bowls talk and for the first 13 ends their opponents failed to score at all as Donaldson and Mollet racked up 24 shots.

Desperques and Dorey finally got some of their bowls to count and achieved 10 shots over the last five ends of the game, but had to succumb 25-10.

In the singles the 2004 champions, Donaldson and Alison Merrien, both won through to this weekend's finals with impressive semi-final showings.

Donaldson overcame Ingrouille with a good second half display to run out the victor by 21 shots to 17 having trailed 8-14 in the early stages.

Merrien meanwhile made her way to the final with a 21-12 win over Eunice Trebert in a game of low scoring ends.

The Guernsey number one will face her former pairs partner Lianna Bichard in the final, the 20-year-old having booked her place after a titanic 30-end struggle with Margery Yates.

The two left-handers were tied at 18-all after 27 ends, but it was the youngster with the new pink bowls that gained the upper hand over the last three with three singles to claim her place in the final.

The men's final will see Donaldson face Steve Le Noury after the latter came through a very one-sided encounter with Paul Merrien with an impressive 21-7 score line.

The women's pairs final will feature the grandmother and granddaughter combination of Mavis Richards and Lianna Bichard who fought their way past Trebert and Merrien by 21 shots to 17.

The scores were tied after 18 ends, but two singles and a double to the family pair saw them win through.

Meanwhile Angela Bartie and Jan Lawrence faced Shirley Petit and Gwen de la Mare in the other half of the draw.

Bartie and Lawrence picked up a five and a two over the first two ends, but then failed to score for the next 13 as Petit and de la Mare amassed 24 shots on their way to a 26-11 victory.

The men's triples saw Mollet and Donaldson joined by Steve Desperques in the Chancers team against the Hijackers team of Shaun Bichard, Dan de la Mare and Craig Dorey. Chancers made the early running and with a four on the 14th end established a 17-10 lead.

Hijackers secured two singles and an impressive three to set up a tense last end, but a single was not enough to force an extra end and they went down by one shot 17-16.

The other triples semi-final saw Phil Schofield, Don Batiste and Terry Dowinton get the better of Garry Collins, Matt Le Ber and Dave Trebert.

Trebert's Falcons opened up an 11-6 lead after 11 ends, but were pegged back with a four and a three on consecutive ends and, in fact, only managed to score two more shots as Dowinton, Batiste and Schofield combined well to score a further nine shots to run out victors by 22 shots to nine.

Lianna Bichard and Richards were joined by Gwen de la Mare for the women's triples and again they got the better of Alison Merrien and Eunice Trebert who in turn were joined by Shirley Petit.

Merrien's Triads started brightly to lead 6-0, but scores were soon levelled and at 14 ends Triads were a single shot ahead at 14-13.

A three to Bichard's Bowl City Rollers proved to be decisive, because despite Merrien's team picking up a single in reply, a double and a single on the last end secured a well-deserved 19-15 Rollers victory.

The men's fours saw the Chancers triples team forced into a late change when just a few seconds before the start of their semi with Crocker Civil Engineering Ltd, Mollet declared himself unwell and his place was taken by Nick Donaldson's son, Ivan.

The primary schoolboy slotted in well to the team and offered his team-mates lots of positional woods to ensure a very close match with the Ricky Brehaut skipped team of Kris Bichard, Steve Bichard and Paul Ingrouille.

Chancers were 14-6 up after eight ends and 17-10 after 12, but a three and a four to Crocker Civil Engineering Ltd levelled the scores only for Chancers to pick up a four of their own to lead 21-17.

Back came their opponents with two doubles and a three, before Chancers replied with a two to lead 23-22 after 19 ends.

However, Crocker Civil Engineering Ltd set up the win when Brehaut ditched the jack for two with his final delivery on the 20th end and they held on to a slightly nervous single on the last despite Donaldson senior's best efforts to move bowl or jack.

Crocker Civil Engineering Ltd will meet Mafia who impressively beat Falcons 29-11.

Terry Boreham and Mick, Ian and Paul Merrien combined well with a fine display of drawing and fireworks to beat Garry Collins, Chris Dyer, Matt Le Ber and Dave Trebert who also produced their fair share of spectacularly weighted bowls.