Guernsey becomes a step on the way to the ‘worlds’

The Professional Bowls Association have agreed for the island to host this high-level event at Hougue du Pommier, with open singles on Saturday and pairs on Sunday.

As the Guernsey Indoor Bowling Association host the qualifiers for the first time, they will join just seven other venues around the British Isles – Scotland’s Abbeyview, England’s Bromley, Hartlepool, Cumbria and Poole, Northern Ireland’s Belfast, and Wales’ Newport.

Guernsey players have a long-standing connection with these events, having been to many qualifying tournaments.

Ali Merrien has been part of that cohort and has also been to the respective main events, which has earned her a reputation for her play.

However, behind the scenes over the years, Merrien has been liaising with organisers about the possibility of Guernsey holding a qualifying event.

That time has finally come and she has to credit, at least partly, last year’s successful hosting of World Bowls Indoor Championships.

‘This is a further legacy from the Island Games 2023, where the Guernsey Indoor Bowling Association have shown that we can host major tournaments, which also included the World Bowls Indoor Championships last year,’ she said.

‘It’s testament to the dedicated volunteers behind the scenes for the hard work and preparation once again. I am really pleased that we can host yet another high-level competition.’

Merrien very much expects the event to produce ‘some quality bowls games’.

‘There are some high-profile players due to come over to Guernsey for this event – Perry Martin, Danny Denison, James Rippey and Tom Warner have all qualified in previous years and are high on the PBA rankings.

‘Obviously, I am hoping to do well but will take one game at a time. Having local player and friend Steve Le Noury as my first opponent is a challenge.’

Such tournaments are open to any player, who can enter at as many venues as they want, but can only qualify once for each main event.

Guernsey have reached capacity in the singles with 50 entries – 21 local, nine from Jersey and 20 from the UK.

This makes it the biggest-ever singles event in Guernsey. The 2024 ‘Worlds’ had more competitors, but split over men and women versus this one open singles event.

There are also 29 entries in the open pairs.

The winners will be heading to Potters Resorts, Hopton-on-Sea, with a preliminary singles and main-draw pairs berth on the line.

Spectators are welcome to watch across the weekend, with Saturday’s action starting at 8am and likely running until around 11pm. Sunday is a 9am start and should finish around 8pm.

Several Guernsey players recently contested a qualifier in Bromley, which had an English record of 95 entries for the singles.

Normally the event would be restricted to the first 64 entries, but the PBA managed to split it across two clubs quite late in the day to allow the waiting list to also play and join for the final rounds at the Bromley Indoor Bowls Centre, which is currently the quickest eight-rink stadium in the UK.

The Guernsey contingent were all drawn to stay at the eight-rink BIBC, which was fortunate as they were at this stage reliant on taxis. But it did mean they were more likely to be in the prelim rounds that started from 8am.

As expected, the change of pace in itself was a test, and wins were hard to come by.

Ian Merrien progressed furthest, losing in the last 32 to England U25 international and recent Bromley club singles champion Harry Duffield on a tie-break.

The event finished just before 1am, nearly 17 hours after it began, showing that players do need to be mentally and physically strong.

The following day saw the maximum 48 pairs start out at a leisurely 9am, and this provided good practice for the Guernsey players, who chalked up some wins.

Guernsey’s pair of the day were Martyn De Carteret and Dave King, who made it to the semi-finals, en route beating Perry Martin and Tom Warner, who have previously qualified in this event to play at Potters.