Greechans defeat Guernsey champs

JERSEY'S domination of the rinks continued into the second day of the inter-insular weekend. Having defended both Le Quesne team trophies the previous day, the visitors proceeded to walk away with both singles titles at the Vale Rec green the following day.

The Greechan husband-and-wife combination had too much guile and experience of big-match situations for Guernsey's two new septuagenarian champions Don Batiste and Pauline Leadbeater.

Tommy Greechan slowly inched away from the Northerners BC member to win 21-12, while Lindsey overcame Leadbeater's early stubborn resistance to win 21-8 in 16 ends.

Leadbeater, who surprised everyone including herself in beating Alison Merrien in the Guernsey final, gave as good as she got in the early stages and trailed only 8-11 after nine.

But Greechan's pink bowls then began to pepper the jack and the Guernsey champion had no answer to the sheer consistency of a player who has a wealth of international, big-match experience.

Batiste, too, ran out of steam after a good start.

At 12-16 he was mounting a mini comeback, but after surrendering a single on the next end, Greechan shortened the head and threw the Sarnian off the scent once and for all.

Batiste was well short of the jack with his first two bowls and Greechan was holding four, enough to win the match, before the former Muratti footballer beat the Jerseyman's fourth bowl with his last to momentarily stay alive in the match.

It was all over on the next end, but Batiste had enjoyed the experience nevertheless at the end of his best ever summer's bowls.

One rink away there was a notable success for the Sarnians with Merrien's four securing the CI women's fours title from the Karina Bisson-skipped Jersey champions.

The basis of the home win was a lightning start.

After five ends Merrien's four, which had Jan Lawrence at lead, Beryl Ferbrache at two and Sally Paul at three, were 8-0 up.

After seven it was 11-0 and after eight 15-0.

Bisson's quartet finally got off the mark with a two on the ninth but after a short wobble, Merrien's team went away again to win 21-14.

It was Merrien's second win of the day, having earlier led the triples to a 22-9 win over Sue Dingle's trio.

On this occasion Merrien was joined by Paul and Michelle Le Clercq.

Gary Pitschou also enjoyed a good day, first winning the CI pairs with Dave Lucas.

After a tight start against Didier Le Falher and Alan Cadoret which saw the score tied 7-7 after eight ends, the Vale Rec duo tore away to win 21-10 after 17.

Pitschou's Guernsey fours champions also came through strongly to win against the shock Jersey qualifiers which included the young Davis brothers.

Initially, the Jersey four dominated and were ahead, but a run of one, two, two, one, two preceded a whopping seven on the 16th and it was all over on the next, 20-12.

The tightest match of the day saw Matt Le Ber edged out 21-20 by Jersey's Jamie McDonald in the under-25 men's singles.