Dorey reaches mixed final

CRAIG DOREY, who reached the final of the WIBC world under-25 mixed pairs championship at Hougue du Pommier two years ago, has repeated the feat at the Auchinleck club in Ayrshire.

Dorey's achievement is all the more remarkable because he suffered alife-threatening aortic aneurism earlier this year and has worked hard to return to the world stage in his chosen sport.

He may not have burnt up the greens in Scotland in the singles, but after teaming up with Scottish teenager Lisa Barrett, he has shown top form as a skip in the mixed pairs.

In yesterday's semi-finals, Barrett, who is only 17, and Dorey chalked up a convincing 10-1 win in the first set, then held on grimly to tie the second set, 7-7.

Standing between them and the title is the talented Anglo-Irish duo of Amy Stanton and Patrick Burns, who beat England's Jamie-Lea Winch and Welsh hope Gavin Abraham, 9-1, 3-11, 2-0, in the semi-finals.

Having won only two of his first six matches in the singles, the Guernsey player completed his group programme in style with excellent wins over Ireland's Burns and England's Matthew Vickery.

He needed a tiebreak to get past Burns - 4-6, 7-2, 2-0 - but stormed to a superb 8-3, 6-5 straight sets win over Vickery.

The Sarnian finished well down the order in sixth place overall.