On Saturday 18th April the Guernsey Tigers took part in the sixth Under 21s Inter Insular against Jersey. Within the Guernsey squad were 3 new caps; Lauren Batiste, Joe Mahy and Georgina Hemming. The squad was captained by Tom Mahy, older brother of Joe and winner of this season’s Under 16s and Under 18s knock outs. The Tigers stormed to an overall 21 – 9 victory (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw) against the Jersey Juniors, which brings the running total to 2 wins to Jersey, 2 to Guernsey and 2 draws.

The day started out in the best possible way with 3 out of 3 wins in the fours and triples. The most convincing win of the morning was that of Todd, Will, Chris and newcomer Joe, who stormed to a 9-1 lead after only 5 ends. Despite all the attempts of the well-accomplished Jersey Under 18s title holder, Malcolm De Sousa, Todd’s fours maintained their lead with relative ease, finishing 19 shots ahead of their Jersey counterparts. Tom’s fours made a good start, leading 5 - 1 after four ends, but dropped two counts of 3 and enabled Jersey to level 7 - 7. With some excellent bowls from both Marie and new cap Lauren, Guernsey were able to pick up a 3, 4 and three 1s to storm to victory 17 - 7. Shaun’s triple had the opposite start, finding themselves 8 - 2 down after five ends. However, with some excellent opening bowls from Sophie in the ends to follow, the team scored two 3s, a 2 and three 1s to scrape a well deserved victory of 14 - 13, despite the experience  of Scott Ruderham and Rachel MacDonald (Ladies Under 25 British Isles Champion 2007) in the Jersey team.

The second session of the day consisted of five pairs matches and one single. Chris Staples was selected to play the singles against Ryan Viddegrain from Jersey. Despite both players being relatively unexperienced in singles, there were some very close heads in the first half of the game which led to a 8 – 8 tie after 10 ends. It was thanks to some cleverly placed jacks that Chris was able to gain the lead over Ryan, who struggled to adjust to the new length. Chris finished on a 3, 4 then a single to win the match 21 – 11. Shaun and Connor teamed up again in the pairs to face Scott Ruderham for the second time of the day. They made a similar start to their previous triples match, finding themselves 8 – 1 down after four ends. However, the established Guernsey pair kept the pressure on, and were able to claw back to bring the score to 11 – 10 at 10 ends. In the following 5 ends, they held off the Jersey pair and only conceded a single shot, to come back and win the match 15 – 11. The second unexpected result of the session came from Tom Mahy and Sophie Rabey. Despite keep the score tight through the first half of the game, at 7 – 8 down they dropped a 2 then a single, to go into the last end needing 4 shots to draw. Sophie undoubtedly saved the best till last, piling her bowls into the head. Despite attempts from Jersey skip Rachel MacDonald to reduce the count to 2 or 3, Tom drew another 2 close bowls which enabled the pair to pick up a 4 on the last end and score a valuable point for the Guernsey team. Todd Priaulx, Will Ceillam and Kris Bichard teamed up with their respective partners and all made a good account of themselves. Kris and Will were joined by new caps Georgie Hemming and Joe Mahy, both of whom more than proved that they deserved their place in the squad, with some excellent bowls through out the games. Despite keeping all three matches extremely tight, Todd, Kris and Will were defeated 11-15, 8-12 and 10-15 respectively.

At 11 – 7 to Guernsey, the third and final session of the day commenced. On rink 5, Connor Rabey gave a very commendable performance against the experienced Malcolm De Sousa of Jersey. Despite some excellent drawing bowls from Malcolm, Connor never dropped a count of four and was able keep the scores down to 1 or 2 on 10 out of the 15 ends. The game finished 21-2 to Malcolm of Jersey. Todd Priaulx, drawn against Jersey's Matthew Herve, did not show any signs of faltering through out the game. He made a great start, leading 14-2 after 11 ends. Matthew picked up a single shot on the 12^th end, then was unable to score again against Todd, who successfully dominated the match from start to finish, ending with a count of four on the 15^th end to win the match 21-3. After Todd's game had ended, all eyes turned to Will Ceillam who was locked in a close battle with Greg Davis. The crowd and players knew that if Will could overcome his Jersey counterpart, he would secure a draw. Despite initially taking the lead 6-5, Will was able overcome Greg to obtain a 14-8 lead after 12 ends. After dropping a single then a 3, he increased his score to 17, which put him only four shots away from victory. Despite a last ditch attempt by Greg to bring himself back into the match, Will scored a single followed by a count of 3 to win the match and secure the draw for the Tigers. Kris Bichard, who was now well aware that his match could be the one to clinch victory for the Tigers, faced Ross Davis, who he had already played against in the fours and pairs. The pair had many times previously in inter-island competitions and the familiarity between the two showed on the green. Kris initially took the lead, jumping to an 11-4 lead after 8 ends. However, the talent and experience of the young Jersey bowler showed, as with some excellent conversion shots he bought the game back to almost level at 12-11. Kris picked up 2 singles, followed by a 3 and a 2 to increase the lead against to 19-11. Despite Ross picking up 4 shots over the 18^th and 19^th ends, Kris was able to pick up a 4 on the 20^th end to clinch victory. With victory now guaranteed, the stadium breathed a sigh of relief. However, both Shaun and Tom were both intent on continuing the run of wins to make it 5 out of 6 in the singles session. Shaun's match against Scott Ruderham was very close from the start, with a score of 14-13 to Scott after 15 ends. Like Kris and Ross, Shaun and Scott had also been drawn against each other in every session. The pair certainly have “history” of very animated match play and have been drawn against each other in the inter-insular test matches since 2004 more often than not. Despite that, both players appeared calm and collected and showed that their experience of playing each other so many times in the past had been put to good use. With each playing to the other's weaknesses, the game was almost tied after 15 with the score 14-13 to Scott.  With some fantastic drawing bowls, Shaun picked up a three, a single, followed by 2 counts of two to win the match 21-15. The last match of the day was that of captain Tom Mahy against the only female in the Jersey squad, Rachel MacDonald. Both players started equally well and neither scored higher than a count of two until the 15^th end, when Rachel picked up a three to take the  lead 12-11. Mahy replied with a count of two and 2 singles, but Rachel soon chipped back at Tom's lead, bringing the game to 15 all. With some excellent opening bowls, Tom was able to pick up three singles and a count of 3 in the last four ends of the game, to clinch the match 21-15.

The Guernsey Tigers will try to retain their title next April, at the Grainville Stadium in Jersey.