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.