Alison’s world double

By Rob Batiste

THE best Australia and New Zealand can offer has been made to look second best by Alison Merrien over the past couple of days.
To reach the World Cup final in Warilla, Alison Merrien had to break her duck over a long-standing rival, the Australian favourite Karen Murphy.

The Guernsey player’s well-deserved 7-8, 10-6, 3-1 win over Murphy, who won the world outdoor pairs title in January, was achieved in front of a partisan crowd and national television cameras.
The win not only avenged a defeat in the qualifying group but several previous losses at the Aussie’s hands.
But this time it could have been a straight sets victory for the Vale star, who controlled the first set.
‘At 5-0 after four ends, Ali was giving the jack away in the first set and was finding any length that Karen was setting, but when the Aussie resorted to force, things changed and Ali dropped a three on the fifth end,’ said proud husband Ian Merrien.
Even so, Merrien was 7-6 ahead when the last end got under way. Merrien failed to nail the jack on the ninth and Murphy somehow managed to collect two shots to sneak the set by the narrowest of margins.

In the second set, Merrien continued to play well and Murphy was again forced into playing some attacking shots to keep her in the hunt. But justice was done when the Sarnian took the set 10-6 and the game into a tie-break.
Murphy drew first blood on the tie-break, scoring a single, but Merrien replied with a double and an extra end seemed on the cards when Murphy held a good shot on the third end.
Keeping her cool, Merrien took the shot with an inch-perfect toucher, but had to wait until Murphy’s last bowl drifted agonisingly past before she could celebrate her win.
Twenty-four hours’ later the 33-year-old was back on the indoor rinks to play New Zealand’s world outdoor champion, Val Smith, whom she had beaten in the qualifying stages.
Merrien was again at her best to win 4-0 in the third-set tie-break, a result heralded half-a-world away by Garry Collins, chief excutive of Bowls Guernsey.
‘Alison is really on the top of her game at the moment and reaping the rewards from it,’ he said.
She can expect a hero’s return when she flies into Guernsey on Sunday. Her flight is expected at 5.30pm.