Collins' last-ditch heroics

NIGEL COLLINS was an unlikely hero as Guernsey's men's bowls team ended a dreadful modern-day Le Quesne Trophy inter-insular record at Les Creux.

The 60-year-old father of Bowls Guernsey chief Garry played a key part in a thrilling win over the home side and a victory few saw coming.

It was 1997 when the Sarnians last won the Le Quesne and may have done so again but for Nigel Collins' intervention.

When Collins, playing number-three in Len Le Ber's four, was asked by his skip to play the jack into the end ditch with the four holding a brilliantly drawn single shot by lead John Keat, he wasn't going to argue and knew the consequences of failure.

With reigning European singles champion Cyril Renouf, the opposing skip, licking his lips in anticipation of being given the chance to play the drive shot himself and win the match for Jersey for the 12th consecutive time, the pressure was certainly on the Guernseyman to deliver.

And he did.

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