Brothers overcome father and son

PAUL MERRIEN produced the perfect bowl at the crucial time to earn a Travers Pairs final spot alongside brother Ian.

In a family-affair semi-final, they came through a tight encounter with father-and-son team Nigel and Garry Collins to continue their progress in the British Isles qualifier.

Lead Ian Merrien, in particular, was in top form and outdrew Collins snr in a close contest at short jack length.

The former managed to find a perfect line to the jack on his home green whereas the latter could not get to the point of having his woods chalked.

That left Collins jnr playing skip for the majority of ends under pressure, to which he responded in a fine manner leaving his opponent Paul Merrien a difficult task.

There was nothing in the match at 6-6 after nine ends, but a count of three on the 14th put the Collins family ahead 12-10 before the Merriens responded with a 2-1-1-1-1 sequence to lead by four.

A long jack by set by Collins snr did not work in his favour but four firing shots by his son and skip proved successful by ditching the jack to count two shots and reduce the match deficit.

They went back to the short jack length for another close head of bowls in which Paul was left faced with a lie of two shots and drawn match against him.

He played arguably his best shot of the game, taking Collins jnr's shot bowl out to earn a 14-17 victory.

In the final, the Merriens will face Matt Le Ber and Daniel de la Mare, who beat Alan Gibson and Mick Hullock in a one-sided game.

The former title holders, both in fine form, were 12-0 up at seven ends and went on to win the match 23-4 with three ends to spare.