The three celebrities – Karina Bisson, Gaynor Thomas and Suzie Dingle – were all back on the green, and this time they were joined by another 21 players to contest the home international series.
But their hopes of collecting another major scalp by beating Wales were soon extinguished, as the rinks skipped by Bisson and Dingle both sank to ten-shot defeats to Anwen Butten and Kathy Pearce respectively.
Liz Cole also lost by ten, while Gina Le Long and Sue Noel went down by four shots apiece, leaving the rink skipped by Margaret Breen, who was well served by new British Isles pairs champion Gaynor Thomas at lead, clutching Jersey’s only winning card – a well-deserved 18-16 win over Ann Lewis.
Wales were well pleased with their 125-89 overall victory, which boosted their hopes of regaining the coveted Eve Trophy, while the Jersey team had to build themselves up for the afternoon encounter with Ireland.
Twice in the last three years, the 24-woman Jersey side has pushed the Irish into fifth place in the league table, and prospects looked bright when they dominated the first few ends.
Unfortunately, the rain, which had threatened all day, intensified, and the greens soon became unplayable, forcing the organisers to abandon play for the day – a rare thing in bowls, which seems to go on whatever the weather.
After the morning defeat, it was doubly disappointing to be washed out after lunch, but Jersey will look forward to the resumption of this particular fixture, tomorrow afternoon, as they lead 27-13.
When play was called off, Karina Bisson’s rink were 7-1 up against Chris Young, Margaret Breen was 6-0 ahead of Pauline Day, and Gina Le Long was holding a promising 6-1 advantage over the legendary Margaret Johnston.
Today’s programme remains (so far) unaffected by the weather, with Jersey enjoying a rest session this morning, before taking on Scotland this afternoon.
Tomorrow morning they meet England, before carrying on where they left off against Ireland in the afternoon.
Yesterday’s scores: England bt Ireland 119-71.
England lead Scotland (abandoned) 20-7.
Wales bt Jersey 125-89 – Rink scores (Wales skips first): A Butten 25, K Bisson 15; K Pearce 22, S Dingle 12; G Miles 18, G Le Long 14; N Shipperlee 24, L Cole 14; A Lewis 16, M Breen 18; B Morgan 20, S Noel 16.
Jersey lead Ireland (abandoned) 27-13 – (Jersey skips first): Bisson 7, Young 1; Noel 1, McNally 4; Breen 6, Day 0; Cole 2, Cameron 4; Le Long 6, Johnston 1; Dingle 5, O’Gorman 3.
