Despite being extremely well-placed a flurry of defeats for former champion Lindsey Greechan and Jamie MacDonald – previously unbeaten in the group stage – meant neither qualified for the semi-final stages.
Greechan has, however, reached the final of the mixed pairs alongside England’s junior champion Mark Dawes.
Facing Malaysian Azwan Shuhaimi and disco-dancing Welsh teenager Kelly Packwood, Greechan and Dawes scorched to a 13-0 win in the opening set, and clinched a place in tomorrow’s final with a solid 7-3 second-set return.
They will face the defending champions, Catherine McMillen, from Ireland, and Scotland’s Wayne Hogg, in what should be a cracking encounter.
Double singles defeats for Greechan and MacDonald came as a major surprise.
Greechan, who won the world title in Belfast in 2003, and was runner up last year in Grainville, finished in fourth place in her section, after losing yesterday to Scotland’s Michelle Cooper and England’s Gemma Broadhurst, who topped the group table.
Cooper edged home by a single shot in the opening set, but stamped her authority in the second, winning, 5-4, 12-6, while Greechan will be disappointed with her defeat at the hands of Broadhurst, after winning the second set, 16-5.
In the tiebreak, the Jersey star looked the likely winner when she won the first end, but Broadhurst, a Lincolnshire lass, took the next two for a scratchy 7-5, 5-16, 2-1 victory.
MacDonald looked on course for one of the two semi final places from his section, but lost surprisingly to Ireland’s Neil Mulholland and less surprisingly to Scotland’s Mike Stepney.
Both were straight sets defeats, Mulholland winning, 9-5, 8-3, and Stepney, who has played for Scotland at senior level, getting home, 7-2, 7-6.
Such is the narrow margin between success and failure that a straight sets win over Stepney would have seen MacDonald finish on top of the table with 11 points, and would have consigned the Scot to a place among the also-rans.
JERSEY finished seventh in the European outdoor bowls championships in the Algarve yesterday, dropping one place from Thursday evening.
Scotland won the championship title.
Report to follow.
