Greechan, who is Le Long’s son-in-law, and Lowery lost, 24-23, in the final of the British Isles’ indoor pairs championship in Belfast to County Antrim brothers, Rod and Steve Coleman.
As ever, the stark scoreline hides an epic story, full of twists and turns, as the thrilling match, which captivated spectators for nearly four-and-a-half hours, went inexorably into an extra end.
The Island pair made the worst possible start, dropping six shots on the very first end, but they did well to level the scores at 8-8 after eight ends, when disaster struck from out of the blue.
The Colemans picked up two fives, back-to-back, and added a double and a single to lead, 21-8, after 12 ends, and, even though there were nine ends left to play, Jersey’s hopes looked well and truly buried.
Hitting back with a four, John and Tommy dropped a single on the 14th, before an astonishingly gritty and skilful assault enabled the Jersey pair to compile a 1-5-1-1-1-2 sequence to take the lead at 23-22 with one end left to play.
Having consistently taken the jack every time they scored, the two men inexplicably decided to give it away on the last end, presumably in order to have the advantage of the last bowl of the end.
The ploy worked against them: they dropped a single, and the gallery was agog as an extra end was required to separate the teams.
Lead Lowery played a running bowl to move the jack with his final delivery, leaving Greechan to defend the potentially winning shot, but Ireland benefited from the rub of the green when Steve Coleman drove with his last bowl.
‘He was going for a plant to take our shot out, but he was miles off target,’ said Tommy afterwards.
‘He hit my short bowl, whacked it into the head, and got the shot.
We were beaten by a wick!’ Greechan’s attempt to reclaim the shot was a brave one, and, unlike Coleman’s delivery, was on target.
‘Their shot skidded around, but somehow stayed in shot position, and that was that,’ said a glum Greechan.
Lowery was soon back on the green, pitting his skills against one of Scotland’s best players in the semi final of the singles, and he gave Darren Burnett, a policeman from Arbroath, a hard time, before the burly Scot got home, 21-17.
Lowery saw a 5-0 lead turn into a 7-14 deficit, and the writing was on the wall when he was 17-9 adrift after 15 ends.
A determined fightback closed the gap to three shots, and Burnett looked worried when Lowery often deprived him of shots by taking the jack through to the back of the rink.
Burnett, however, prevailed, and will line up in the final this morning against the host country’s hero, Jeremy Henry.
The Jersey players in Belfast, and in Prestwick next week, are sponsored by Standard Bank.
