Women retain Le Quesne trophy

In pleasant conditions, they got over the line of their nine-match series with five wins to four against their Jersey counterparts (10 points to eight), while the men fell short of repeating last year’s rare title success in winning two, drawing two and losing five (six points to 12).

But both Guernsey teams had been level on points with their inter-island opponents after their six matches on the Saturday, only for the women to edge clear as the

men wilted in their three Sunday games.

Having returned to representative ways after a long absence from this competition, former world U25 champion Sophie Rabey said it was a ‘nice feeling’ to win.

‘It would have been nice for the men to win too, but at least we got the trophy,’ she said.

‘It’s nice to see quite a lot of new caps playing this year. It’s good to see other people being picked and playing in island competitions.’

Rabey enjoyed playing skip in one of the three women’s triples, with Jackie Nicolle and Yvonne Le Gallic in charge of the other two.

After relinquishing a significant lead to be pipped 19-18 to Ann Bisson and her allies on the Saturday, Rabey’s team bounced back with a commanding 21-8 victory over Jo Le Quesne’s triple.

It had been a similar tale for Le Gallic’s triple, who lost by one shot to Caroline Staley’s team before edging Bisson’s 16-14 later that day.

Nicolle and co beat Le Quesne’s triple 20-18 before losing 23-16 to Staley’s.

Although Nicolle’s team were unable to contend in their Sunday match, wins headed by Le Gallic (16-10) and Rabey (23-15) secured Guernsey the women’s trophy.

Todd Priaulx, John Rihoy and Colin Leighton took up skip duties in the men’s series, where each team consisted of a four.

Priaulx’s rink came from 8-2 down twice to tie both of their games – 15-all to Ross Davis’ team and 14-all to John Lowery’s.

John Rihoy and Colin Leighton guided their men to victory against Malcolm Da Sousa’s four, winning 22-13 and 18-15 respectively to keep Guernsey in the hunt.

But Jersey won all three of the Sunday morning matches convincingly to secure the men’s trophy.

Bowls Guernsey president Robin Herbert nevertheless relished the opportunity to use six new caps, including the particularly young Marcus Rihoy.

‘Among the new caps for Guernsey was Marcus, who at 14 must be one of the youngest players to represent the island,’ he said.

‘In all the games, he consistently out-bowled his opposite number.’

It also proved an enjoyable experience for the bowlers, with Rabey adding: ‘It’s a really good competition and it’s nice that it’s split over two days – it used to be one day.’