Lianna poised for the semis

GUERNSEY'S young bowling trio of Craig Dorey and brother-and-sister duo Kris and Lianna Bichard acquitted themselves well at the Hougue du Pommier yesterday. Having won her opening singles match on Wednesday, Lianna added two excellent victories to finish the day unbeaten and is poised to clinch her place in tomorrow's semi-finals.

Dorey, buoyed by his opening success against Malaysian Salahuddin Razali, showed character after suffering a narrow morning defeat at the hands of Welsh hope David Axon, bouncing back to beat Ireland's Chris Eadie after lunch.

Sadly, it was not such a good day for Kris, who went down in straight sets to England's junior champion Jamie Chestney and Malaysia's Commonwealth Games medallist, Safuan Said.

Lianna produced a gutsy performance to edge home 5-4, 6-3, against Lucy Beere, from the Isle of Wight, who excelled in the recent Test match in which England whitewashed Jersey.

And the Guernsey youngster had to work even harder to dispatch Scotland's Kirsty Gardiner, 8-2, 5-7, 2-1, in the afternoon to keep her record intact.

Her biggest rival in the group has turned out to be Welsh disco-dancer Kerry Packwood, who is also unbeaten after three matches - and the two stars meet this morning in what should be a cracking encounter.

Dorey makes a habit of tying sets, but the sets format is

all about playing it tight and that is exactly what he has done so far after winning the first sets against two of his opponents.

There was no disgrace in losing to Axon, who took John Price close in the final of last winter's Welsh indoor singles .