MICK LE GALLIC was swamped by team-mates as Guernsey regained the Louis Lamb inter-insular trophy and their pride with a 6-3 victory over the old enemy at a packed Hampshire Lodge. After two defeats on the bounce and a right old hammering in 2003, Daryl Butcher’s men were desperate to show their real selves and did not disappoint the skipper.

‘This is the gutsiest team we’ve had,’ said Butcher, who rounded off the evening with a thorough straight-sets destruction of Jersey’s top player, Dave Eusebini.

‘To come back after last year and do what they did was unbelievable,’ added the captain, who admitted he had had his concerns when, with the match tied at 3-3 and Paul Hewitt trailing 0-2 to Kenny Horton, the odds on a hat-trick of Jersey successes were shortening by the throw.

‘Mick [Le Gallic] and I said it was down to us if Paul loses,’ said Butcher and it was no wonder because, even by his own admission, Hewitt was terrible for two legs and at one point seemed to have no chance against Horton.

As Hewitt lost the first two sets to some very average darts, the man who had never won an inter-insular tie before looked as if he hated every moment of it.

But, suddenly, the worst match of the evening saw a dramatic change around.

Hewitt nicked the next three sets in 27, 27 and 24 darts respectively and Guernsey were 4-3 up with just one win needed.

Afterwards, Hewitt could at last afford a smile.

‘It wasn’t a pretty game by any means – probably the worst of the night.

‘But I had three doubles – end of story,’ added the man who had won only as a reserve previously.

‘The only three darts I was comfortable with were the doubles,’ he said.

It was a crucial win, nonetheless, and a pumped-up Le Gallic quickly wrapped up the match with a 3-1 win over Tony Maddock.

Le Gallic won the first and second in 20 and 25 respectively, Maddock showed his class with a 17-darter to stay alive, but when he missed his double in the fourth the Guernseyman stepped in and with his first attempt at double 12 found the vital bed.

Cue pandemonium.

The bodies cleared from the stage, Butcher, with no longer a care in the world, stepped up to sweep Eusebini aside in 20, 18 and 19 darts.

His finishing was more clinical than anything seen previously on a night when the occasion got to many players on both sides.

Yet it was not good enough to wrest the man-of-the-match trophy from the grasp of Jerseyman Eddie Le Bailly, who had won the opener 3-1 against a green-haired Mark Fallaize.

The recalled Paul Shepherd then silenced those critics who felt he should not be in the side with a 3-1 win over Rene Turmel and Colin Prigent put Guernsey ahead with a 3-0 destruction of a poor Mark James.

Jersey captain Joe Bell made it 2-2 with a 3-0 win over debutant Chris Smith and with Robin Foss and Geoff Lotherington trading wins it was 3-3 and Hewitt was about to make his mark.

Jersey’s consolation was to see Angie Le Bailly, wife of Eddie, land the CI women’s singles title at the expense of Guernsey champion Tracy de la Haye.