Merrien magic nearly pays off

ALISON MERRIEN has earned such a big reputation among the world's top bowlers that it was no surprise to see her inspire her Guernsey quartet to great things in the quarter-finals of the British women's indoor fours championship in Belfast yesterday.

With her mum Jill Froome at second and Sheila Bretel and Jan Lawrence slotting in at lead and third, Merrien went through her wide repertoire of attacking shots to keep the Channel Islanders in the hunt against a star-studded Midlothian quartet which included three Scottish internationals.

The Scots, who beat them by four shots on their last meeting, must have felt that they had done enough when they broke a 9-9 deadlock and surged ahead to lead, 19-11, with only four ends left to play.

But a brilliant take-out from Merrien conjured up a count of four on the 18th end, and a single and a double for Guernsey narrowed the gap to one shot at 19-18 when the last end got under way.

The relief of the Scots was evident when Merrien's last despairing effort to trail the jack for a winning count of two missed its target, and left them with a double for a 21-18 victory.

'So close, but not close enough,' said Merrien.