Guernsey Tigers vs Jersey Juniors

Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 April 2010

Despite a two and a half hour wait, the Guernsey Tigers finally made it to Jersey on Saturday lunchtime after being lucky enough to get out of Guernsey Airport on one of the only flights to leave that day. The Captain for the day, Connor Rabey, kept everyone entertained during the delay and the team arrived in surprisingly high spirits even after a very early start and a lot of sitting around.

The team matches kicked off proceedings and all three turned out to be unusually close from start to finish. Connor Rabey skipped the fours, helped by Shaun Bichard at third, with Joe Mahy at second and Sophie Rabey, older sister of Connor, at lead. Despite going down 7-1 after 5 ends, the stubborn Guernsey team dug their heels in and chipped away at the Jersey lead. By 12 ends the Tigers were in the lead at 11-10. A good bowl on the last end by the experienced Jersey skip, Greg Davis, won the game 14-12. Both triples matches were just as close. The first being skipped by Tom Mahy, joined by Alderney's Will Ceillam at third and Lauren Batiste at lead. The Tigers led all the way and only allowed Jersey to equal at 10-10 after 11 ends. Some good opening bowls by Batiste and Ceillam kept the pressure on and allowed Mahy to close down the head on the last end, resulting in a win of 13-11. Chris Staples made his debut appearance as skip for the Tigers in the second triples match He was joined by Under 35s singles runner up Todd Priaulx and his older sister, Marie (Staples). The scorecard told a very similar story to the other matches, with both teams equal at 9-9 after 12 ends. Chris Staples played a fantastic take-out shot on the last end, but his Jersey opponent Ross Davis drew his last bowl into the head. Staples tried to draw the shot but was just slightly heavy and ran past the head. The third excruciatingly close game was won by the Jersey squad 10-9.

The pairs matches saw Connor Rabey skip Shaun Bichard, Tom Mahy skip Marie Staples, Will Ceillam skip Joe Mahy, Todd Priaulx skip Georgie Hemming and Chris Staples skip Sophie Rabey.

Rabey and Bichard played some good bowls but started badly, dropping 20 shots to their 8 after 12 ends. Despite a late surge of points, the boys were unable to claw back enough and were defeated 23-13. Mahy and Staples had a similar match and started badly, being 24-1 down after 11 ends. However, they managed to score 12 points in the last 4 ends of the match and finished a very credible 24-13 against a tough Jersey side. Ceillam and Mahy started very well and managed to hold Jersey to 10-10 after 10 ends. Jersey picked up a four on the twelfth end which helped them to clinch victory 17-10. The highlight of the session came from Priaulx and Staples, who both drew 13-13. Staples and Rabey came back from 8-0 down after 5 ends against the U18 International pair from Jersey and clinched a count of 2 on the last end to secure the draw. Priaulx and Hemming, who had to fight off the very experienced Jersey skip, Malcolm De Sousa, made a similar come back from 13-8 down after 11 ends. Despite being game down on on the last end, the dependable Priaulx drew his last bowl to get second shot and save the match 13-13.

After a very long first day, the overall points total stood at 12-4 to Jersey. With most games being won or lost by only one or two shots, the points total could have easily been 10-6 to the Tigers.

Sunday morning saw the 6 singles matches being played to round off the inter-insular. One of the first matches off the green was Todd Priaulx against Scott Ruderham. Priaulx hammered home a storming victory for the Tigers, beating Ruderham very convincingly by 21 shots to 5. Shaun Bichard and Tom Mahy had almost identical matches against Ross Davis and Guy Walton from Jersey. Despite starting badly, both players fought back to level pegging after 14 ends, but their Jersey opponents proved too strong and defeated them 21-13 and 21-12 respectively. Chris Staples had a storming start, taking 6 shots to 2 off Malcolm De Sousa. However, De Sousa soon found his stride and with a couple of precise take-out shots he defeated Staples 21-6, despite a very brave attempt from the young Guernsey talent. Connor Rabey was unable to settle to the rink as well as he had done the day before and soon found himself 20-5 down after 17 ends. The U25 British Isles Singles Champion from Jersey, Rachel MacDonald, drew a fantastic last bowl and won the match 21-5.

The last game to finish was between Will Ceillam and Jersey's Greg Davis. Despite dropping 10 shots in the first 8 ends, Ceillam fought his way back from 10-2 down and overtook his opponent, scoring 15 shots to Davis' 12 after 15 ends. With the remainder of the Guernsey crowd huddled behind his rink, Ceillam played some impressive drawing bowls to score two singles, followed by two twos to win 21-13.

The overall points totalled 20-8 to Jersey.