Next stop World Cup

ALISON MERRIEN avenged her quarter-final defeat by the same player at the 2006 Commonwealth Games to pull off the best result of her career in New South Wales this morning. While Guernsey folk were still tucked up in their beds, Merrien produced the result her form all week at the Warilla Club in New South Wales suggested she could.

She had no doubts about the relevance of the success, calling it the best of her career.

'Absolutely. You can't get higher and it's about bloody time,' she said, during a break in the championship presentation dinner.

With mother Jill Froome supporting her - 'she's been watching me all the time' - Merrien ensured there was no repeat of their clash in the Melbourne Games.

On that occasion, Siti Zalina Ahmad came back at the Guernseywoman after losing the first set, so this time Merrien was determined to resist the inevitable fightback.

'After winning the first set I knew she would come back at me.'

The title is even more remarkable given that she lost her very first match, against the Dutch champion, in the round-robin qualifier last week.

The Guernsey star refused to panic.

'I knew she had improved a lot, so I knew that match would be tough. I just put it behind me and got on with it.'

She says her next target is to repeat the success at next spring's World Cup indoor event at the same club in NSW.

Sadly, though, she will not be able to challenge for the WBL's 'other' world singles title, which will be up for grabs at the world outdoor championships in Christchurch in January.

'It's really a team event and Guernsey qualified in the men's, but not the women's,' the player explained yesterday.

'I'll be following events from 12,000 miles away and will feel a bit envious, especially as Ian, my husband, will be there.'

Back home, Garry Collins, Guernsey bowling's chief executive, called her 'our golden girl'.

'Guernsey is very lucky to have a person of her talent.'

The Guernsey player had already won two world titles - the WIBC world indoor mixed pairs with Adrian Welch in 2001, and again with Neal Mollet in 2004.

And she has twice worn the British Isles indoor singles crown, in 2002 and 2006, and skipped Lianna Bichard to the British Isles indoor pairs title in 2005.