Jersey v SCA 2003
28-29 June 2003, Jersey
Four Scots converged on Jersey for this biennial match: two members of the 2001 team, Bruce Rannie (handicap 0.5) and Jamieson Walker (6), were joined by Fergus McInnes (6) and Duncan Reeves (10). The Jersey players were drawn from a pool of seven, which included three generations of the Burrow family: Matthew (−2), his mother Sarah (−0.5) and his grandmother Doreen (12); the others were Martin Hodge (3.5), John Taylor (4.5), Richard Sowerby (7) and Elizabeth Medway (14). Selections were made to ensure a good match of total handicaps on each day.
The 2001 match in Edinburgh had been a 10-10 draw, and we had high hopes of repeating or improving on this performance in 2003 − especially after a saltire was seen in the sky over Jersey on the Saturday morning. (Admittedly such an apparition is less remarkable now than it was before the age of aircraft contrails.) The first day's results sustained this hope, with an even split in each round of games (one round of doubles and two of singles), leaving the match wide open with an overnight score of five games each. The most notable occurrence was Matthew's sextuple peel on his partner's ball in the doubles against Fergus and Jamieson, which he followed by a triple in each of his other games.
We enjoyed dinner in one of Jersey's excellent restaurants, returned to our lodgings under far more stars than we are accustomed to seeing from Scotland at this time of year, and were back at the lawns by 9am on Sunday for the second half of the match. This time the doubles games both went Jersey's way, establishing a 7-5 lead for the home side. The next round was split, making it 9-7, so that the Scots needed all four games in the final round for a win, or three of them for a draw. As it turned out, Bruce achieved a win over Sarah in a closely-fought game, but none of the other three Scots was able to replicate his success, and Jersey ended up the winners by 12 games to 8.
The Scottish team had a good time on this beautiful island, despite the match result. Thanks are due to our hosts − John and Ursula, Richard and Mireille, and Elizabeth − and to the others, particularly Sarah, who helped to organise the match. We look forward to welcoming a Jersey team to Scotland again in 2005.
Fergus McInnes
Results
(Jersey names first)
Day 1
M Burrow & Medway beat McInnes & Walker +23SXP (Burrow)
Taylor & Sowerby lost to Rannie & Reeves −8t (13-21)
M Burrow beat Reeves +25TP
Taylor beat Walker +24
Sowerby lost to McInnes −18
Medway lost to Rannie −26
M Burrow beat Walker +23TP
Taylor beat Reeves +24
Sowerby lost to Rannie −25
Medway lost to McInnes −10t (10-20)
Day 2
S Burrow & D Burrow beat Rannie & Reeves +11
Hodge & Sowerby beat McInnes & Walker +8t (20-12)
S Burrow beat McInnes +26
Hodge lost to Rannie −13
Sowerby beat Reeves +17t (22-5)
D Burrow lost to Walker −5t (15-20)
S Burrow lost to Rannie −8
Taylor beat McInnes +11
Sowerby beat Walker +6t (24-18)
D Burrow beat Reeves +2t (14-12)
Jersey 12, Scotland 8