GGU flummoxed by lack of championship entries

'WHERE are you? Let's be having you.' No, it's not Delia Smith calling for support this time, but the Guernsey Golf Union committee who must be wondering where are all the island's finest players after the smallest entry for an island championships for some time.

Just 37 players paid £15 to enter the most prestigious event of the year, the Deutsche Bank Guernsey Championships, 15 down on last year and 27 short of the maximum 64.

'Many see it as simply throwing money away,' said one un-named first-round loser, who is happy to support the event even though he says it invariably means paying about £1 a hole for the privilege.

'It just doesn't provide value for money if you are among the higher handicaps,' said the same player.

Roy Martel, the GGU secretary, was honest enough to admit he plainly 'didn't know why the entry was so low.

'We dropped the price by a pound this year and dropped it to £15. I don't think it's necessarily cost.

'But from the GGU point of view it's something we will have to look at.

'Hopefully, it's just a blip and the numbers will return to the fifties and close to the sixties as they have been in previous years.'

The disappointing entry comes at a time when the island have never had as many golfers with handicaps seven or below.

Non-entries at L'Ancresse and Royal Guernsey alone, see approximately three dozen players with handicaps either equal or lower than one of the stars of this week's tournament, seven-handicap Chris Thompson.

Most certainly, work commitments prevent many from committing themselves to enter in the knowledge that a late afternoon start is necessary.

Others, like Mick Marley, may not enter because they will not be available for the CI final should they qualify.

Martel added that the situation might require a questionnaire being sent out to those players who turn their back on the event.

ENTRIES for the women's matchplay championships are far from staggering either and word is that for 2006 a move to evening matches could be on the cards.

In the absence of defending champion Veronica Bougourd and former champion Jan Chamberlain, the competition is refreshingly open.

But do not be surprised if former champion Kay Mapley, plagued by back problems in recent years, gets her hands back on the trophy.

Sue Wellfair is top seed and if the seeding committee have got it right she will play Joan Bichard in next Friday's 36 holes final.

TWO of the Royal's big guns, Mick Marley and Bobby Eggo, are through to the last eight of the club's main matchplay event, the Swinburne.

But in the fourth round both men had a real scrap on their hands to reach the quarter-finals.

Marley was taken the distance by Rainer Schimek, as was Eggo by Paul Le Page.

ROYAL GUERNSEY will have home advantage when they play the Royal Jersey in the CI area final of the Hampshire seven-a-side knockout at the end of next month.