Ayr suits Jersey bowlers

Ayr suits Jersey bowlers

Although the results for Jamie MacDonald and Gaynor Thomas in the singles may have been disappointing, the Island’s fours, skipped by Thomas and Lindsey Greechan, lit up the greens, and finished with four wins in four matches.

Derek Boswell and Cyril Renouf, who were cruelly denied the pairs title on Tuesday, were joined by Alan Shaw and Thomas Greechan, and the compatible quartet scorched to a 28-14 win over Guernsey, skipped by Ian Merrien.

Six-nil up after two ends, the Jersey team were overhauled by the tenth end, when the score was 13-12 in Guernsey’s favour – but Jersey ran riot in the second half, collecting four trebles to win by fourteen shots.

Against Canada after lunch, Greechan’s men scored a five to lead 9-3 after five ends, but promptly dropped six shots in two ends to tie, 9-9 after seven.

‘I thought we played better than they did as a four, but their skip, Michel Larue, kept on delivering saving bowls to stop us forging ahead,’ Greechan said.

‘So it went down to the wire at 18-18 after 17 ends.’ An exciting last end saw Jersey build up a good position, only for Larue to send the jack out of bounds, necessitating a replay, and the Jersey quartet were delighted to hold on to the shot for an exciting 19-18 victory.

The Island’s women – Chris Grimes, Joan Renouf, Liz Cole and Lindsey Greechan – were also in good form, chalking up wins of 23-8 over Portugal, and an even more impressive 16-14 victory over South Africa, which was more comfortable than the score suggests.

Jersey led 7-2 after four ends, and 9-6 after nine, before powering into a 16-8 advantage with only two ends to play – at which stage the highly-rated South Africans made a desperate late challenge.

A treble on the 17th made it 16-11, and Cole faced a potential match-lie on the 18th, when she cut the count to three to save the day.

Jersey’s 19-year-old prospect MacDonald had a hard day, facing two world-class players in South African Wayne Perry and Scotland’s Darren Burnett, but, after losing 21-10 to Perry, he gave the Scot, who won, 21-15, a run for his money.

In the women’s singles, Thomas started promisingly with a 21-12 win over Canadian Shirley Ko, but slipped up in yet another Le Quesne-style local derby, losing 21-17 to Guernsey’s Jackie Nicolle.

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