Merry Merrien and his men

PAUL MERRIEN'S island fours returned to Guernsey yesterday heroes and national champions. The four of skip Merrien, Sid Le Maitre, Mac Timms and Roy Queripel had never played together as a complete squad, but they still managed to take the scalps of Scotland and England before beating Jersey in the final in Clevedon.

Merrien joked he was 'disappointed' not to have beaten the Caesareans more heavily than the very comfortable 23-11.

'I'd have liked another 10 shots against them.

'It's fantastic and everyone is over the moon.

'Mac doesn't have to fly back because he can fly himself back as he hasn't come down off the ceiling yet,' said the captain of a player who had stepped in as a replacement for the unwell and unavailable Ralph Deakin.

Against Jersey, the Sarnian four started well and did not look back.

A single and three twos saw them lead 7-0 after four ends before the Caesareans hit back to first trail 6-9 and then 8-13 with seven ends to play.

Guernsey were in no mood to let the title slip from their grasp.

Two threes took them to 19-8 and although Jersey claimed three singles, they still trailed by six with just two ends remaining.

Merrien's men finished it in style.

Le Maitre and Timms set up a situation where they were holding three with an excellent back-up bowl in place.

Queripel and Merrien continued the good work and with some fine draws to the head held six shots before the Jersey skip fired with his last bowl and removed a couple.

The four shots ensured a 23-11 final result.

In the earlier rounds, Guernsey had first edged past Scotland 16-14 to set-up a semi-final showdown with the England four of Jon Stradling, Malcolm Edney, Ian Snowdon and Dale Hall.

It proved close again, Guernsey trailing for most of the match and still 13-15 adrift after 18 ends.

But a two on the 19th levelled things and two singles on the final two ends secured a magnificent victory.

Merrien admitted that beforehand getting through a round or two was the limit of their expectations and to beat the English and Scots were major triumphs in itself as they were both well-honed combinations.

'The Scottish and English players played 18 rounds before getting to us.

'We definitely had a few shaky moments but we kept our heads and pulled it together.

'The second half of every match is where we came through strongly.'

Team manager Garry Collins said afterwards the fours' win highlights the steady progress being made by Guernsey.

'We have been in the British Isles Championships for four years.

'The first year we had a runner-up in the pairs and the second we were runners-up in the fours and the singles with Gary Pitschou.

'Last year Dan de la Mare and Matt Le Ber won the British Isles pairs and now the fours. I get congratulated by chief executives of all the other countries on the progress we are making. They know we exist as we keep taking scalps,' he said.

In the other competitions, Matt Le Ber lost his opening junior singles 21-14 to Ireland's Adam Barr who went on to beat Jersey's Jamie McDonald in the final.

In the men's singles, island champion Geoff Savident went down 21-10 to England's Simon Jee who went onto take the title and in the pairs Dave Lucas and Pitschou lost 22-16 to Ireland's Barry Browie and Martin McHugh.

In the triples, Lucas and Pitschou were joined by Len Le Ber and went down 25-14 to the English trio of Neil Hope, Mark Dyer and Mel Biggs.