And, painfully, in the fours, it was Guernsey who left the Clevedon arena with the gold.
Teenager Jamie MacDonald struggled in the U25 final against Ireland’s Adam Barr on Saturday, and was beaten 21-18 after trailing throughout, as he had done in his earlier matches, including his 21-20 semi-final victory over Scotland’s Andrew Caldwell.
‘It was one match too many for Jamie,’ Ferguson said.
‘He’d had those two tough matches in the early rounds when he came from 20-15 down, then 20-16 down to win.
In the final he had to find the shots to stay in the game, and he just couldn’t manage it.
He’d spent so many hours in the sun, it was just one too many – the effects of those matches showed in today’s final too.
But he’s a young man and he will be back to win that title.’ In yesterday’s triples – in which 18-year-old MacDonald was again in action, with Thomas Greechan and Lee Nixon – and the fours, Will Waymouth, Con O’Callaghan, Dickie Allen and Brian Cabot – Jersey trailed from the start as their opponents, Wales in the triples and Guernsey in the fours, eased into comfortable leads to win 24-19 and 23-11 respectively.
‘If we’d won those two matches Jersey would have won the NatWest Trophy for best nation,’ Ferguson said.
‘The players are pretty much resigned to what happened.
They know you only get as good a result as you play.
‘Sometimes you get the breaks that mean you do better, other days, no matter how you play nothing goes your way.
But I told them that, despite the final results, you can’t take away the fact that they qualified for the championships in the first place, and they got to three finals against some of the best players in the country.’
