Dave Jeffery about to start his match with Steve Turvey, which was won by the LGM player. (0756551)
CAPTAIN Nigel Mallet cannot wait for his La Grande Mare side to feature in the Guernsey final of the Hampshire Sevens.
LGM continued their successful run in the competition with a home victory over the Royal Guernsey and now face L’Ancresse, who defeated Guernsey Juniors.
‘This is our first decent run in the competition for a few years, paying off the amount of work we have put into team selection,’ Mallet said.
‘We look forward to our match against L’Ancresse.’
LGM had started confidently with Dave Jeffery and Rick Le Poidevin going well in their favour early on, but Royal Guernsey fought back strongly to increase the hosts’ nerves.
Le Poidevin was looking safe with a one hole lead walking up 18 with opponent Shaun McDade in the trees, but the rubber was not over.
‘His caddy, Joules, [Le Gallez] told him to take it easy. However, he took it too easy and ended up losing the hole, to everyone’s surprise,’ Mallet said.
By that stage, LGM had three of the four required points for victory.
Wayne Martel made the most of his nine shots against island player David Nicolle and Paul Cosnett took advantage of being on his home course to defeat Patrick McKeary.
Jeffery, despite being pegged back for a time by the outstanding short game of evergreen Steve Turvey, sewed up his rubber 4 and 3.
‘We then realised that Rick had not closed his game out and had started going around the course again, while Wasif Anees, who had been two up, had lost the 14th to Nigel Vaudin to a birdie and put his drive out of bounds on the 15th,’ said Mallet.
More drama was to follow.
‘Nigel put his first shot out of bounds on the signature hole the 16th, while Wasif landed on the green, but rolled into the bunker, under the gaze of the majority of the spectators.
‘Nigel put his provisional into play, but Wasif failed to get out of the bunker, so the hole was halved in five.’
Anees failed to take advantage of his shot on the 17th, but as they teed off on the 18th news came through that Le Poidevin had managed to beat McDade on the 22nd hole, despite being in a bunker.
Anees subsequently birdied the 18th with a great approach shot from about 50 yards to make the result 5-2.
The Royal’s points came courtesy of Julian Woodhard, who won the last two holes to beat Hedley Ablitt, and Neil Tanguy.
The location of the final, which is determined by the toss of a coin, is yet to be decided, although the Channel Islands final will take place in Guernsey.Hampshire Sevens: Captain Nigel Mallet looks forward to meeting L’Ancresse in Guernsey final
Article posted on 16th April, 2009 - 2.29pm
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