Le Ber's hat-trick books him place at 2008 Brits

MATT LE BER will be joining golden oldies and newly crowned island champions Pauline Leadbeater and Don Batiste at the British Isles Championships in Wales next summer. Le Ber, a runner-up at this year's British Championships, beat Dan de la Mare 21-15 to make it three island under-25 singles titles in a row on Bowls Guernsey finals day at the Corbet Field.

And at just 22, the Vale Rec man who lost to Don Batiste at the quarter-final stage of the Elliott Singles is hopeful of more British under-25 opportunities before he becomes ineligible.

'It's nice to win while I've still got a chance.

'It was a good match, although a bit tricky with the wind,' he said.

It was level at 7-7 after eight ends but the turning point came on the 10th.

Loose play by de la Mare saw Le Ber pick up a count of four and that lead was slowly built on as he came out best in a tit-for-tat high-quality dead drawing spell.

Le Ber also turned three of the ends in his favour by the use of heavy tactics and with 25 ends played de la Mare shook the hand.

Ricky Nash may have lost out on the big one, the Elliott Singles, but on a difficult rink he took just 19 ends to beat Mike Rose 21-8.

In other singles showdowns, Gary Pitschou beat Steve Machon 21-5 to claim the Press Singles.

Machon found Pitschou in an uncompromising mood and could not match his opponent's close drawing ability.

It was all over in 12 ends.

Meanwhile, the incredibly fast-improving Matt Solway struck once again in the final of the Open Dot Foley Singles for novices.

Andrew Lucas scored a two on the first end, but he was never ahead again as Solway, with his family among his supporters, dominated the 20-end game to triumph 21-10 and land his first trophy.

In the Men's Travers Pairs Pitschou and Dave Lucas beat Roy Queripel and Sid Le Maitre to book their British Isles place.

In an initially close match on a difficult rink, Pitschou and Lucas were 11-4 up after nine ends, but by the 15th it was cut back to 13-12.

Pitschou and Lucas then rediscovered their touch and stormed away to win 21-14.

Wilma Le Feuvre and Pauline Leadbeater beat Sally Tranter and Gwen de la Mare in the women's Brookman Pairs, but de la Mare softened the loss of that match by joining her son, Dan, to win the Nicolle Mixed Pairs.

The de la Mares found themselves trailing Ellie Collins and Pitschou 6-5 after the opening four ends, but 10 shots gained over the next seven put them well in control.

Some good head build ups by Collins and Pitschou forced young Dan to employ heavy tactics to successfully kill two ends and keep them on the road to victory and go one better than last year.

Gwen also featured in the Press Drawn Pairs but with Jackie Nicolle lost 17-22 to Peter Tranter and Clive Ogier.

Pauline Leadbeater had already four trophies under her arm when she and Mike Rose faced Angela Bartie and Nash in the 60-and-over Mixed Pairs final.

It was all square at 17-17 with one end to play, at which point a single by Bartie ended Leadbeater's run of wins.

The men's Tostevin Triples final saw Nigel Collins, Alan Gibson and Don Ogier take on the very experienced and strong favourites, Roy Queripel, Sid Le Maitre and Mac Timms.

Although Collins' men were marginally ahead after the opening three ends, the expected strong performance by the Brats trio materialised with skip Timms playing some very delicate drawing shots to secure good heads for his team.

By the 11th they were 13-5 ahead and looking good for a trip to next summer's British Championships, but with heavy drizzle starting to fall, they began to struggle.

A strong finish by the Barracudas saw Ogier and Gibson give Collins a match lie of four and his opposing skip, Queripel, a difficult full-length draw to contemplate.

With the rain falling even more heavily Queripel drew the perfect shot, leaving Collins to deliver an equally perfectly weighted bowl to remove the Brats' shot bowl.

With just a bowl from Queripel to come, it was asking too much for him to repeat his previous delivery in those conditions and it fell short to the delight and celebrations of a shocked but very happy Vale Rec trio.

The corresponding women's match for the Woodhard Triples saw the Wonder Women trio of Alison Merrien, Sally Paul and Michelle Le Clerq edge home by a point from the Phoenix combination of Anne Simon, Lyn Small and Peggy Fish.

The men's prestigious Sandeman Fours final brought the relatively young but very experienced Falcons team of Matt Le Ber, Pitschou, Garry Collins and Len Le Ber up against the veteran Sarnians quartet of Stan Simon, Ken de Mouilpied, Norman Gavet and Mick Yabsley.

Disappointingly, Sarnians could not repeat their semi-final form and in a one-sided match the favourites romped to a 26-9 victory to guarantee a CI final and the important invitation to the British Isles Championships.

In the corresponding female final, the Wonder Women squad of Merrien, Paul, Beryl Ferbrache and Jan Lawrence beat Les Filles - Wilma Le Feuvre, Small, Iris Rowe and Jean Simon - 25-5 with two ends to play.