France, England and Belgium have not travelled because they will be in Jersey in February for the European Championships.
As organiser Paul Bolton, chairman of the CI Pool Association explained: ‘I cannot blame them too much because of the cost of travelling twice, so we have brought the B-team players from both islands in to give them a taste of an international.’Keith Brewer, England’s most capped player and winner of the recent Embassy European singles event, will also play for the South-West and will be hot favourite for the men’s singles event, which starts on Sunday at 10 am.’The Jersey A-team is made up of most of the top players in the Island including their top player of all time, Gary Cook, plus Aaron Canavan, who has won most of the recent trophies in both islands.Captaining the side will be young Alan Humphreys who has made his progress through the juniors to compete in yet another highly prestigious event.
Ady Bougourd, who has played at world and European level, is also included and Mark Willmett comes in as a late replacement for Jason Derrien.
Leigh Ruderham and Andy Richardson make up the A-team.The B-team will be made up of Mark Shaw (captain), Wayne Summers, Andy Evans, Joe Cairney, Chris Alexander, Danny West and Richard Hardy.
Hardy and Summers both have experience at this level as does Alexander who, like Humphreys, has a wealth of experience as a junior.The ladies will be without captain Rhi Brooks who is out of the island.
Delia Browne and Tracy Periera have international experience but will blood Lisa Feighan, Christel Le Toullec and Sharon Shaw.
