Chantelle Hale surprised herself in winning the women’s competition. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0898729)

While all other local sport took time out, 16 of the island’s top ‘tenpinners’ gathered at the Island Bowl for the shootout to find Guernsey’s representatives at the 2010 European Championships in Turkey.

The men’s event turned out to be a thriller with three bowlers still in the running as the 10-man event approached its climax.

But with Derek Tomlin faltering late on in the proceedings, the final round, which pitted the top two players on the scoreboard, started with just 11 pins separating the pacesetters, Gary Hale, and the 2005 champion Bob du Feu.

Eleven points in a 10-game competition is minuscule and with 20 points going to the winner of each head-to-head, the matter of bonus points was never going to enter the equation.

Whoever won the game would win the title.

Hale fluffed his lines with a 182, while du Feu was steady as they come and with six strikes posted a 214 to win the competition by 46, 2,272 to 2,226.

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