John Lowery and Alan Shaw, watched by Scotland’s Willie Wood

A CRACKING 30-15 win over Spain in the last group match was not quite enough to land Derek Boswell and Cyril Renouf a place in the knockout stage of the Atlantic pairs championship in Johannesburg yesterday.

Jersey trio Alan Shaw, John Lowery and Terry Allen battled hard, but were edged out twice, first by Brazil, and then by England, and have lost their chance of a place in the last eight.

Quite astonishingly, Boswell and Renouf, who were runners up last time out in Ayr in 2007, completed the group stage with a shots credit – one of only two teams to do so – but still finished in fifth place, behind Ireland, Guernsey, Brazil and Israel.

‘That means that another win over the seven games would have been enough for them to finish in second place,’ said Jersey team manager Gus McKionnon. ‘A draw would have seen them safely home in third place in the eight-team group, and given them a place in the quarter finals.’