Improving Guernsey claim top-half finish in Prague

Tuesday 13th July 2010, 2:29PM BST.

The Guernsey squad for the European Championship: Back row, left to right: Dale Martel, Jason Mariess, Ben Corson, Fran Snoding of Intertrust, Steve Mahy (coach), sponsor representative, Glenn Cortez, Kyle Nelson, Tony Gillespie, Marco Silvestri. Front row: Judy Machon, Marissa Mollet, Sophie Warren, Paula Mahy, Sally Le Noury, Sue Fish, Eleisha Gettings. Hannah Coutu was unavailable for the photo. (Picture by Chris George. 0994497)

GUERNSEY proved they can mix it with the best as they finished fourth in last week’s European Co-ed Slowpitch Championships in Prague.

Going into their first tournament in a decade, the Sarnians certainly had hopes of challenging for a top-half finish in the eight-team event, but probably surprised even themselves in the way that they did it.

In the round robin group stage, they started off their campaign by taking on Great Britain.

In truth, it was an impossible start against the side who were the best in the tournament by a country mile, and a 26-2 defeat was disappointing but far from fatal.

Indeed, GB went on to win the tournament with a 100% record and has been claimed by many to be the finest team they have ever produced.