Pairs cook up a win - too late

GUERNSEY'S woes were compounded in Christchurch yesterday when the only bright spot was a hard-earned 16-14 victory for the Sarnian pair, Mac Timms and Ian Merrien. It came against South Sea islanders Munokoa Totoo and Vaine Henry from the Cook Islands.

Celebrating their first win in the competition, Timms and Merrien hauled themselves off the bottom of the group league table, but have effectively said goodbye to their chances of clinching a place in the quarter-finals.

Earlier, they had come up against an in-form pair from Papua New Guinea, Pomat Topal and Peter Juni, who beat Guernsey 25-12 to move close to the top four in the section.

The Guernsey triple of Nigel and Garry Collins and Gary Pitschou played only one match yesterday - everyone in their section is having a bye, because the Zambian men's team failed to turn up.

Facing Australia's Commonwealth Games gold medalists, Wayne Turley, Bill Cornehls and Mark Casey, Pitschou's trio were outplayed 28-8 and have so far collected only one point from their draw with Namibia.