THEY secured just two rink wins out of the six, but Guernsey’s men opened the inter-insular weekend at Hougue du Pommier with a 19-shot win on Saturday.
Key to the success were wins for the quartets skipped by Dan de la Mare (pictured) and Neal Mollet.
Both their teams romped to big wins and enabled Steve Desperques’ mixture of youth, experience and the established to hold onto the trophy despite being outscored on the majority of the rinks.
Both teams fielded a clutch of emerging youngsters, while Jersey gave a debut to an 83-year-old to emphasise that in bowls you are never too young or long in the tooth to play at representative level.
Desperques had a close view of the potential of the Bichard brothers, Shaun and Kris, who teamed up with Desperques and de la Mare to win by a country mile – 35-6 – against Brian Bisson’s four.
It was doubly encouraging to see their performance given that they have been chosen as a four to represent Guernsey at the next alternative Island Games bowls event.
Neal Mollet’s team, including the emerging Tom Mahy, were also big winners, scoring big in the latter stages to move well clear of the very young Malcolm de Sousa led Jersey four.
Mollet’s men were only six clear after 13 of the 21 ends, but scored eight over the final three to win decisively.
Craig Dorey’s four were well beaten but the other three matches were all tight.
Matt Le Ber’s four, which included young Connor Rabey at two, were 10-14 down at the two-thirds stage, but inched back to first level and then lead 16-14 after 17.
But from his time as a Muratti star Mo Vowden knows a few things about winning tight inter-island clashes and the Jersey four with him at lead finished strongly to win by two shots.Inter-insular weekend: Guernsey win both team matches
Article posted on 6th April, 2009 - 2.29pm
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