Pitschou so close

THE Ali and Gary Show continued in Belfast at the weekend, when Guernsey's Alison Merrien reached the semi-finals of the WIBC women's world indoor singles championship and Gary Pitschou went one better and reached the final of the men's event. Pitschou was proud to become the third Guernsey player to reach the WIBC final in five years, following in the footsteps of Neal Mollet and Nicky Donaldson, who blazed the trail in 2003 and 2006.

A good game? That was an understatement. King, who won the WBT world title last year, is known to be one of the most consistent players on the circuit and was in top form in the final.

Pitschou matched his famous opponent every step of the way and the England star, who knew just how close it had been, was clearly relieved to get home, 8-7, 9-6.

King led 7-2 in the first set, but Pitschou dug in bravely, and levelled at 7-7 after 10 ends, forcing King to break the deadlock with a single on the final (11th) end.

A similar photo-finish looked on the cards in the second set, when Pitschou trailed the jack brilliantly on the penultimate end for a count of three that would have levelled the scores at 8-8.

Against most opposition, Pitschou would have been able to put the treble on the card and would have gone into a sudden death last end with a good chance of taking the match into a tiebreak.

'You can't take anything for granted against Mervyn,' said Pitschou. 'It was a difficult shot, because my three bowls were all less than a foot from the jack, but he showed his class and drew in for second wood.'

King did enough on the last end to stop Pitschou scoring the three shots he needed to win the set and actually drew the shot with his last bowl - but the 8-7, 9-6 scoreline reflected much credit on the Channel Islander.

Alison Merrien said she was 'more than slightly gutted' at her semi-final defeat at the hands of Scotland's 28-year-old Claire Johnston, who went on to beat the favourite, Carol Ashby, in the final.