Ali edged out twice and fails to survive weekend
IT WASN’T the best of weekends for Guernsey’s Ali Merrien, who suffered a shock defeat in the quarter-finals of the ‘Just’ Women’s World Indoor Singles championship at Potters Resort, but she dug deep and showed her true grit in the semi-finals of the mixed pairs yesterday afternoon.
But that, too, ended in disappointment for the Sarnian.
Although the semi-final was a cracker that entertained a large and knowledgeable crowd at Potters, which has become the Wembley or Wimbledon of bowls, Merrien and her Scottish partner Stewart Anderson were cruelly pipped on the last end of a tie-break by Norfolk’s own Bex Field and the quality Commonwealth Games singles champion Darren Burnett.
Merrien turned in a below par performance against her close friend and rival Janice Gower on Saturday, the Blackpool star getting home, 6-6, 8-5.
‘It really was disappointing, because I wasn’t at my best,’ Merrien said. ‘Janice played well, but if I had been in the sort of form I have been showing recently, I think I would have won that game.’
More in Monday's Guernsey Press.