L'Ancresse lose in dramatic extra-hole climax

LES MIELLES did it the hard way and won an extraordinary Hampshire Sevens CI final against hosts L'Ancresse yesterday. The see-saw match had everything and with the scores locked at 3-3, it was only fitting that the final rubber on the course went to an extra hole to decide it.

L'Ancresse captain Mike Hamon was up against Julio Moniz in an encounter that had already had a contentious moment due to a rabbit hole on the 10th, but both players rose to the challenge superbly.

Their drives into a stiff wind perched on the top of the hill to the right.

Moniz then played a glorious second with his rescue club to about five feet.

Hamon followed him with a cracking iron shot that finished just a little further away.

However, the L'Ancresse man's putt just slid by the hole whereas Moniz's dropped in to send his teammates into raptures.

'We gave it our best,' said Hamon, who chose not to elaborate on earlier events with regard to the ruling on when his drive on 10 ended in a rabbit hole apart from saying, 'it's done and dusted'.

Suffice to say that both sides had their say before the players reached their extra hole.

Hamon did, though, give credit to his opponent for his culminating birdie.

'We hit two good shots off the tee, two good seconds but he sunk his putt and I missed mine,' he said.

It had looked dire for the home side as the matches had come through the 12th.

At that stage five of the L'Ancresse players were trailing and only one - Danny Bisson who hit an exquisite three iron to within a couple of feet at that par three - was ahead.

Andy Eggo, though, was turning things around in the first match out against Les Mielles captain Simon Allchin and he put the first point on the board for the hosts as he won 3 and 2.

That was soon levelled as Karl Fitzpatrick eased past Jeff Domaille 6 and 5 and the visitors took the lead when Shane Fitzsimons staved off a remarkable Jamie Blondel comeback to win on the 18th. Both players ended with fine birdie twos.

Bisson secured his point 3 and 1 against Chris Rayner and Steve Mahy's fine come-from-behind victory over Jason Quenault was equalled by Paul Horgan's 3 and 2 win over Garry MacFarlane to set up the dramatic finale.

'We thought we had lost it,' said a near-breathless Allchin afterwards.

'We got our noses in front when Karl finished his game very early and then Shane won his on the last with a birdie after Jamie had rolled his 20-footer in.

'Then a couple of matches in which we had been in front were turned around and at 3-3 we thought that Julio's par on the last was not enough. But a ruling on a prior hole, which was not correctly resolved at the time, meant that the match was all-square.

'With the pressure well and truly on, Julio managed to birdie the extra hole into a stiff breeze and take the tie.'

Allchin took even greater satisfaction in winning the CI final on foreign turf after a Hampshire administrative error meant that Jersey did not host the match.

'We should have been playing at Les Mielles and it makes this victory all the sweeter,' he said.

'I feel justice has been done and huge credit to my team to pull out easily our best victory so far. We can now look forward to a home tie.'