Wily L'Ancresse pair end the starlets' Noel run
IT WAS a L'Ancresse versus Junior Golf Club final in the inter-club Noel Shield and by a 3 and 2 winning margin it was the more experienced and familiar pairing of Alan Le Noury and Steve Langlois who overcame the starlets, Craig Shorto and Wayne Moore.
IT WAS a L'Ancresse versus Junior Golf Club final in the inter-club Noel Shield and by a 3 and 2 winning margin it was the more experienced and familiar pairing of Alan Le Noury and Steve Langlois who overcame the starlets, Craig Shorto and Wayne Moore. Individually the two juniors have both been playing excellent golf of late and playing alternate shots in the handicap foursomes format, Shorto and Moore still looked formidable as they took a two-up lead after just two holes.
But it did not take long for Le Noury and Langlois to dig in and play some consistent golf.
Six consecutive fours on the way to the turn helped reverse the scoreline but it was not without misfortune and controversy for the juniors.
On three holes out of five, Shorto and Moore found sand which resulted in them losing each.
To make matters worse, referee Chris Thompson called a ruling against the youngsters on the eighth green for touching the line of their putt which also cost them the hole.
Experience goes a long way to winning matchplay and after going three up at the 10th with a birdie, Langlois and Le Noury maintained their consistent play.
Even though the boys had the steady influence of their respective fathers on their bags, they could not make significant inroads into the deficit and losing the 16th hole to par was the final nail in the coffin.
COURSE knowledge is a major advantage when it comes to managing your way around a golf course in order to find a winning round.
No other player in the field had more knowledge of the St Pierre Park course than the July medal winner, Tom Vaughan.
Playing off his 13 handicap, the greenkeeper carded a total of 12 pars on his way to a net 46 which is eight under par for the par-three course.
After a bogey, double-bogey start, the prospects did not look great, but a five at the second would be his only double bogey all day and only three more dropped shots would follow over the remaining 16 holes.
But Vaughan needed the countback ruling to separate him from Gary Whitwam (23 handicap) and Darren Pipet (20), who joined him on a closing net 46 total.
LA GRANDE MARE, St Pierre Park and the Royal Guernsey have all recently staged their respective Captain's Day with Tony Hall, Greg Allison and Jock Tanguy each participating in their fellow captains' big event.
At La Grande Mare, Allison was on hand to distribute drinks to the 122-strong field which, in benign conditions, took part in the individual Stableford format.
In receipt of 20 shots, it was left to Brian O'Mahoney to head the field with a 43-point total, seven points and shots better than par.
O'Mahoney kicked off his round with a par at four of the front nine holes and reached the turn with 20 points.
There was still room for improvement and although O'Mahoney bogeyed five further holes, he parred the difficult 15th and with a double-shot advantage, he picked up four points towards an inward 23-point total.
O'Mahoney's winning score was not really threatened as four points adrift were James Coquelin and Kevin Buckley.
Coquelin (21-handicap) collected 11 points over the final four holes which included a fine par at the last, enough to claim second on countback.
Failing to score at the last hole put paid to Buckley collecting second spot all to himself.
Royal Guernsey's Jock Tanguy won the guest prize with 30 points.
On his own captain's day, Tanguy stood on the first tee for nearly 12 hours watching a mass of Royal Guernsey members attempt to get their opening tee-shot over the hill.
One player who had no trouble getting his ball sailing down the fairways was winner Tony Veron, who must have followed some fine drives with excellent iron play into the greens.
The 16-handicapper amazingly totalled a massive 41 putts on his way to victory on 43 points.
With nearly as many overall points as putts, Veron won the event by following up an above-average front half of 20 with a very impressive one-over-par gross back nine and 24 more points.
Five other players managed to score in the 40s, one of them being the NatWest Island Games gold medallist, Bobby Eggo, who equalled his own course record of 64 gross for 40 points.
With no dropped shots and six birdies, Eggo had a putt on the final green to break the course record.
Tapping in for par at the 18th meant Eggo had made a net bogey.
St Pierre Park captain Tony Hall propped up the Royal Guernsey Captain's Day leaderboard, but back on his own course a few days later, he watched John de Carteret (16-handicap) fire a net 47 to take the spoils.
Thanks to an excellent six-hole spell from the 12th tee to the 17th green, de Carteret was able to see off the in-form Darren Pipet (18) by virtue of countback.
In fact, de Carteret's birdie two at the 14th hole all but sealed victory for him.
Pipet also finished strongly but for once failed to find a two during his round which would have made the difference between finishing second and winning.
Robert Laine took the scratch-prize honours with a 63 while Sarah Hardwick with a four-under net 50 was the pick of the women.
JACK MITCHELL, Ross Wheeler and Wayne Moore all finished with a two-under-par 68 in the Junior Club's Valentine Trophy.
But on countback Moore continued his memorable year by taking the honours.
He crucially birdied the 17th hole on his way to an 83 gross, but in scoring an impressive 71 gross, Mitchell made a double bogey at the same hole, having started his round with a hat-trick of threes.
In all, Mitchell, 16, made six birdies during his round and following his mini-disaster at the penultimate hole, he followed it up with a two, at last showing that his game is also maturing.
