At Royal Leamington Spa yesterday afternoon the Jersey bowlers knew that winning alone might not be good enough to secure second place, and a place in the quarter-finals, behind defending champions New Zealand who were always going to top the table.
However, a 27-15 win of their own over Japan, followed by Zambia’s unexpected 25-15 win over hitherto second-placed Israel meant that Camacho, Grimes and Dingle moved swiftly up into second place, while the disappointed Israelis had to settle for fifth place.
In today’s quarter finals, the Jersey trio will meet Canada, one of only four countries to have qualified in both disciplines.
Meanwhile Jersey’s British champions Gean O’Neil and Karina Bisson were kept out by Canada’s mother-and-daughter combo, Clarice Fitzpatrick and Shirley Fitzpatrick-Wong, who inflicted an unexpected 21-17 defeat on Ireland’s Phyllis Brett and Margaret Johnston.
Knowing that their destiny might depend on shots difference – and it did come down to that in the end – O’Neil and Bisson piled up 14 shots without reply yesterday morning to beat Holland’s Leny Peek and Guurtje Ros-Copier, 21-10.
With league leaders England already through, Canada’s win over Ireland allowed Jersey to draw level on 8 points with the Canadians, who finished with a shots advantage of +19, compared with Jersey’s +8.
Looking back, the Jersey duo would have needed another 11 shots against Holland to have tied with Canada on shots – and would then have moved through thanks to their 20-19 victory over the Canadians in round one.
That was how close it was for O’Neil and Bisson who, on another occasion, might have had the rub of the green in the same way that the Jersey triples made their own luck, before those nail-biting moments when they had to rely on Zambia making good luck for them.
lThe Jersey pair, who finished third in their group, have to settle for a further group encounter with Israel, Fiji and Botswana in the play-offs for places nine to 12.
