A QUARTET of bowlers from Alton represented Bowls England in the British Isles Championships in Jersey – and they came home as champions.

Lesley Johnson, Brenda Plumpton, Hazel Marke and Margaret Holden headed to Les Creux Bowling Club where they competed as national senior fours champions.

In the semi-final the Social Ladies were against the home nation and previous winners from Jersey Bowling Club who were skipped by Chrissy Grimes, who has represented Jersey at all levels including the Commonwealth Games.

The match was played over 18 ends and was a close and tentative affair as both quartets came to terms with the artificial surface, but it was the Social Ladies who finally ground out a four-shot lead going into the last end where third wood secured a 16-14 win and a place in the final.

Scotland were the Social Ladies’ final opponents and possibly had a slight advantage having played a preliminary round and semi-final, but the Social Ladies played with more consistency and had the better of the early ends.

The Scottish four were still in touch until back-to-back fours early in the second half of the match put the Social Ladies well ahead before securing a comfortable 23-13 win to add the British Isles Championship to their national and county titles.