Sean Mills, who together with Tom Le Huray won Guernsey’s first point, drives at Grouville. (Picture by Matthew Hotton, 0635185)
THE scoreline might suggest otherwise, but Guernsey made Jersey work very hard for their fifth consecutive inter-insular win.
Always the underdogs away from home, the Sarnians heeded captain Dave Rowlinson’s call to be in with a chance after the opening fourballs. Overnight they trailed narrowly 3-2.
However, the hosts had taken a commanding 7-3 lead after the foursomes and Guernsey were left with a mountain to climb in the 10 singles.
‘Jersey just played very, very well,’ said Rowlinson. ‘I do not think we played bad golf, but Jersey are such a strong side that when they are on that form at home, I’m afraid we can’t live with them.
‘We were just very much up against it and we have to improve our overall standard.’
The star for Guernsey was Jamie Blondel. Together with Steve Mahy, he won both his fourballs and foursomes matches before defeating former CI champion Matthew Parkman over his home course in the singles to finish with a maximum of three points.
Unsurprisingly, Rowlinson had Blondel at the top of his list of positives.
‘Jamie won three out of three, which was a great effort,’ he said.
‘Steve Mahy also looked very comfortable and very good in the situation, Jack Mitchell had a very good singles win over Paul Le Chevalier, the Jersey champion, and some of our younger guys competed well.’
Gale force winds made the conditions very tough during the opening fourballs on Saturday afternoon.
However, Sarnian youngsters Sean Mills and Tom Le Huray were always in front in their match with Christy McLaughlin and Gary Denton to claim the Greens’ first point, winning 2 and 1.
Blondel and Mahy were one down with two holes to play but firstly Blondel, at the 17th hole, and then Mahy, at the 18th, holed good birdie putts to defeat Richard Ramskill and Andrew Clarke by one hole.
For the hosts, veteran Trevor Gray was partnered with Jersey junior champion Sam Crenan against the Guernsey top pairing of Bobby Eggo and the Channel Islands champion Garry McFarlane and ran out winners by 3 and 2.
Le Chevalier and Alex Guelpa were in great form and their better-ball score upon the completion of their match with Danny Blondel and Mitchell was five under par, giving them victory by 4 and 3.
However, Hampshire county player Gavin O’Neill partnered by Matthew Parkman managed even better, being seven under par when they defeated Mick Marley and Nigel Vaudin 8 and 6.
That left a lot to play for on the second morning in the foursomes and in the first match out Gray and Denton found themselves four down with four holes left to play against Mahy and Blondel.
The home pair produced a really strong finish, though, winning three holes on the trot and Denton was left with a makeable putt at the last for a half, but he was unable to convert, leaving the Guernsey pair winners by one hole.
However, the remainder of the Jersey side were in good touch and won their matches to give their team a seven-point lead at lunch.
The singles started well for the home team with both Denton and McLaughlin coming in as 4 and 3 winners, leaving Jersey needing a further one-and-a-half points to win the trophy.
Guernsey were making a fight of things further back, though, being up in four matches and very close in the others.
However, Gray got the point to ensure Jersey could not lose when he made a rock steady four at the last hole to defeat Mahy by one.
Blondel’s 2 and 1 win over Parkman kept Guernsey’s hopes alive of claiming a half, but that was short-lived when both Guelpa and Crenan claimed a victory within minutes of each other.
As in the junior inter-insular, the draw had pitched Crenan against Le Huray and they will meet again at the weekend in the CI Junior Championship final.
Mitchell emphasised his match-play prowess in claiming Guernsey’s other full point with a 4 and 3 win over Le Chevalier while Danny Blondel and Nigel Vaudin both halved their rubbers.
‘The standard of the golf is extremely high, there is no question of that, and Dave Rawlinson agrees that we are a little ahead of them at this present moment in time and I believe him when he says they are going to work hard to close the gap on us again,’ said Jersey manager Steve Bowen.
‘I agree with Dave, too, that their players have not played badly at all. It is that our guys have played extremely well throughout.
‘What we have to keep doing now is to work hard and keep the pressure on Guernsey. We know next year it will be tough again at their place and we’ll do what we can to keep our standards up because I know Guernsey will be doing their bit to get the trophy back.
‘We need to keep our standards at the same level because there is no question that Guernsey will improve.’
Rowlinson added that next year should provide a better chance to break the run for Guernsey.
‘At the moment, if you look at the overall team of 10, they are stronger than us. We need home soil and a squad firing on all cylinders to win the trophy,’ he said.
Article posted on 9th September, 2008 - 2.29pm
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