Savident the surprise package in the semis

Having already beaten Bobby Eggo, Jason Savident added another former champion’s scalp to his tally as he knocked out 2020 winner Tom Le Huray to book his place in today’s semi-finals.

Lying in wait is his L’Ancresse club-mate Jamie Blondel, but having already far exceeded his own expectations in this championship, Savident will be relishing his chance to shine once again on the big stage.

Yesterday it was his excellent short game that saw him through his last-eight encounter.

‘He got up and down from everywhere,’ said Le Huray of his opponent.

Le Huray led a couple of times on the front nine, but Savident’s propensity to save par from some tricky situations, including one outrageous escape job on the eighth, kept him well in the hunt and the pair reached the turn all-square.

The underdog then edged ahead and quickly doubled his lead at the 12th where he came up with another sublime chip to start heaping the pressure on the Island team regular.

It soon got worse for Le Huray, who was perhaps suffering from a touch of match-play rustiness having only played 20 holes before yesterday during the week, as he lost the next two holes as well and suddenly he was staring at defeat at 4 down with four to play.

Savident admitted afterwards he got a little nervous at that point and Le Huray’s par at the 15th was good enough to get a hole back and he won the next, too.

However, Savident got the half he needed at the 17th to close out the match and move just one step away from the final.

Having impressed with his short game all week, Savident will now face arguably the best in the business domestically in another former winner Blondel.

His quarter-final against his good friend Danny Bisson looked really tight on paper, but Bisson was not quite on his game and never got a putt to drop all night whereas, as usual, Blondel rolled them in when they counted to win in 15 holes.

Shot of the night, though, undoubtedly belonged to 17-year-old Rory McKenna.

After a long drive down the fourth fairway, the reigning Island junior boys’ champion was left with just 122 yards to the pin and his wedge shot was judged to absolute perfection, dropping into the cup for a brilliant eagle two.

That put him 3 up in the early stages of his match with Arthur Evans, but it was no great surprise that renowned gritty competitor Evans fought back and he turned the match around to lead after 11 holes.

McKenna played a delicate chip expertly on the 12th to draw level and he reduced the longest hole on the course, the 14th, to just a drive and a nine-iron to edge ahead once more.

He made a brilliant par save on 15 to retain that lead and Evans was unable to find the birdie he required over the closing three holes as the teenager earned a hard-fought win.

However, there will not be an all-junior semi-final as Ollie Chedhomme was unable to reach the heights of his performance against Danny Blondel and lost to a typically-solid performance from Andy Eggo.

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Quarter-final results

J Savident beat T Le Huray 2/1; J Blondel beat D Bisson 5/3; R McKenna beat A Evans 1 up; A Eggo beat O Chedhomme 3/2.

Today’s semi-finals

A Eggo v R McKenna 4.50pm; J Blondel v J Savident 5pm.