England err on selection and Scots say thanks
WHILE England thought they could come and conquer with merely a couple of promising juniors and were proved very wrong, Guernsey did what was expected of them at the British and Irish Championships on home soil.
WHILE England thought they could come and conquer with merely a couple of promising juniors and were proved very wrong, Guernsey did what was expected of them at the British and Irish Championships on home soil. Victories over the Isle of Man in the fifth and final round saw Guernsey avoid the wooden spoon in the men's, women's and combined team competitions, which was just what Phil Hunkin, non-playing captain of the local men's team, expected.
Most of the weekend, Guernsey's best were chasing white spheres around the table, struggling to stay with players ranked hundreds of places higher in the world rankings.
Hunkin said the experience had been, though, more than worthwhile.
'It gives them a gauge of what they've got to do. They are about 10 to 20% below their level,' Hunkin added.
The Guernsey men had expected to lose all their matches and duly did, 3-0 across the board until coming against the Manxmen.
Even then it did not initially go to plan for the Sarnians.
Phil Ogier went two legs down in the best-of-five format against unorthodox veteran John Magnall, but then hit back to win in five.
Ogier said he was 'just pleased to grind out a win'.
'I haven't played him for about eight years and the last time I played him he was a tricky customer.
'I tried to get my head around his combination bat and unusual style,' Ogier added.
With Guernsey one up, Scott Romeril doubled their advantage and then teamed up with fellow junior Garry Dodd to seal the match 3-0.
But the main prize went to the Scots, who fielded their national numbers two, five and six as opposed to the English who, with most of their best players in a Chinese training camp, rather arrogantly brought two promising juniors instead.
Tim Yarnell and David Meads were, according to England's non-playing captain Alan Cooke, their sixth-best team and did not produce the goods until it was too late.
The defending champions lost to both Wales and Ireland and it was not until the dead final rubber against Scotland, who had the title in the bag and opted to rest their best player, Gavin Rumnay, that England beat one of the other home countries.
The crucial match was between Scotland and Ireland whose best player, the world-ranked 281 Colum Slevin, was used only in the doubles.
It proved a marathon but the Scots came through 3-1 with Rumgay winning both his singles rubbers and the vital doubles.
Euan Walker, Scotland's non-playing captain, was not in the least surprised to come out on top.
'We knew we were good enough to win.
'We had four guys and the idea was to give all of them some exposure. All of them stepped up to the plate. It was a good team effort,' he said.
'The Irish game was always going to be the big one and after winning that, we knew we had it won.'
Wales had pushed Scotland hard in the men's event and left the island with both the combined and women's trophies in their suitcases.
At the other end of the women's table Guernsey performed slightly better than their male counterparts despite being without two of their first-choice squad in Alice Loveridge and Kay Chivers.
Dawn Morgan enjoyed a particularly good tournament and had the satisfaction of defeating Scotland's Catherine Symons in four.
