Jamie MacDonald, John Lowery, Tommy Greechan and Lee Nixon had to settle for silver when they were pipped on the extra end after tying 14-14 after 21 ends.
But it was a match, against Zander Mair’s Scottish champions, they obviously believe they could have won – had it not been for an incident that denied them an extra shot on the 14th end.
‘We were holding five shots, when their skip drove and took out two of them,’ explained Greechan.
‘Their third man said “”two shots to you,”” and promptly kicked in the head before we had a chance to claim a third shot.”” When the umpire Roger Black was called, the Scot explained that he thought he had heard one of the Jersey team settling for two – something they strenuously denied.
Black, who had not witnessed the incident, offered Jersey three alternatives: they could replace the jack and bowls where they thought they had finished, and declare the end again; they could replay the end; or they could accept two shots.
Nixon felt it was impossible to replace the jack and bowls, which had all been moved, and reluctantly accepted the two shots they had been offered.
Some Scottish observers even alleged that Macdonald had picked up the jack prematurely.
‘The whole thing left a nasty taste in the mouth,’ said Greechan, who was born in Scotland.
‘We finished all square, so it’s fair to say, if we had had three shots on that end, we would have won the match by one shot!’ Full report in today’s JEP.
