ALL FOUR Jersey teams failed to progress to the finals day in the men’s and women’s events at the Atlantic Senior Fours bowls tournament, as the first week of competition came to a close in Paphos.
The event, hosted by the Constantinou Bros-owned Athena Beach Hotel and supported by the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, on the west coast of Cyprus, has seen 20 nations from around the world – up from 12 in 2023 – and over 200 bowlers competing at the World Bowls-sanctioned bonanza for players aged 55 and over.
The 16 Caesarean players formed two men’s and two women’s teams and, much like they did two years ago in the inaugural tournament, they landed a few blows, without really threatening to progress to the business end of proceedings.
On the men’s side, Jersey A (Mark Kaleta, Rob Clive, Alex Stewart and Gus ‘Skippy’ Hodgetts) finished seventh in Section 1 of the round-robin phase, winning five and losing six of their 12 matches, finishing on 16 points, with South Africa topping the table and Spain finishing runners-up.
Their most notable performances came against eventual runners-up Spain, whom they beat 18-12, and the Czech Republic, who proved no match for Skippy and Co. who racked up a 29-2 success.
They followed that win with an 18-15 defeat of England, while they also saw off Wales 23-6 and Norfolk Island 18-17.
The Jersey B team (Stuart Simon, Peter Mauger, Steve Lund and Graeme Le Cornu) finished in a respectable fifth place in Section 2 with 19 points after notching six wins and five defeats. Scotland came out on top, with England B in second.
They managed to inflict the only defeat suffered by Scotland in the group stages – 19-14 – and then beat Switzerland 18-8, Wales B 13-11 and Zimbabwe 15-14, before being brought down to earth by Australia, who romped to a 22-4 success.
Jersey B bounced back to defeat Canada A 15-8 and Cyprus A 16-13, but any hopes of sneaking into the top two ended with losses to England B (8-16), the defending champions from England (9-22) and the Isle of Man (8-35), while their last match against Israel B was cancelled due to the weather, with only a select few matches being played on the indoor rinks at the hotel.
The Jersey women’s teams did not fare so well, with their A side (Lorraine Plante, Sam Hodgetts, Rosemary Godel and Fiona Archibald) only coming eighth in Section 1, with three wins, three draws and four defeats from their 10 matches.
They started well, beating Israel 22-11 and then thrashing Namibia 35-3, with a 19-13 loss to England B in between.
But they were only to win one match – a 17-7 defeat of Wales – although they were deprived of their last two matches, against Canada A and the Czech Republic, which were cancelled due to the weather.
Jersey B (Gwen Stark, Jean Holmes, Jo Le Quesne and Sue Cockle) only claimed two wins, and losing seven of their 10 Section 2 encounters.
They saw off Canada B 20-5 and Spain 16-7, with the draw coming as a result of their match with Australia being called off due to torrential rain.
Attentions now turn to the mixed fours competition, which starts on Wednesday and ends on Friday.
All the teams have been placed in 14 sections of three, with the winners progressing to the final stages of the Mixed Cup, the second-placed sides going through to the Mixed Plate and those finish bottom being placed in the Mixed Bowl.
