Thompson's junior era ends in disappointment

EMILE THOMPSON felt that his time as a Guernsey junior was about to end on a huge high on Saturday night. After the opening day of the Sarnian captain's sixth and final under-18 inter-insular, his side were 5-3 up having shared the morning's foursomes and made a terrific afternoon comeback to win the fourballs three rubbers to one.

However, as is so often the case with Jersey, the visitors excelled in Sunday morning's concluding singles at L'Ancresse to retain the trophy and deny Guernsey their first win since 1998.

'I was really expecting to win today,' said Thompson after the presentation. 'It's a really big disappointment.

Of the several pluses that the Sarnians can take from the weekend, the biggest was the performance of Daniel O'Brien.

One of two newcomers to the team, he was the only member to claim the maximum three points from his matches.

While some might have seen it as a risk, the decision to pair O'Brien with the other debutant, Jamie Le Page, for the opening foursomes worked perfectly as they triumphed 2 and 1 over Chris Young and Will Taylor.

Thompson and Ross Wheeler picked up the other Guernsey point on a first morning which saw all but one match go to the 18th.

Jersey started the afternoon fourballs in brisk fashion and the Guernsey team as a whole were well down going through the turn.

However, they turned things around in dramatic fashion with Tom Le Huray and Wheeler, and Thompson and Wayne Moore securing 3 and 2 victories while Sean Mills and O'Brien edged past Harrison Steele and Paul Aitkens by one hole.

Whether the prospect of a first defeat in seven years spurred Jersey on or made the home side nervous going into the singles was hard to say - it was probably a mixture.

Mills had no nerves with an outstanding display in a 6 and 4 win over Keiran Goodricke but that was the solitary Guernsey point won in the first six matches out.

With the final three of Wheeler, O'Brien and Le Page still each in with a shout down the home stretch, there was still a slim chance that the hosts could obtain the three points required.

However, all hopes were banished when Aitkens, playing against Wheeler, holed his second shot into 16 for an eagle to stun the home support. It was a shot worthy of winning any competition.

O'Brien managed to complete his full house while Le Page performed gallantly before conceding defeat on the 17th green.

'One big positive was Danny O'Brien,' said Thompson, who also praised 13-year-old Le Page.

'Of the two debutants, one got three wins out of three and the other one from two. You cannot ask for much more than that.

'I was expecting the senior members of the team including myself, Millsy and Tom to get three from three but we got two, two and one so that obviously didn't help.'

Despite the defeat, Guernsey Junior GC president Chris Thompson was proud of the Sarnians' efforts on what he called 'a wonderful weekend of golf'.

'The match had a bit of everything and it swung both ways over the two days,' he said.

'It is a relatively new experience for a lot of these guys to be playing competitive golf in the spotlight for 54 holes with crowds following them, but that helps them concentrate and they have produced some excellent golf in tricky conditions.'