Nip-and-tuck singles light up opening night

On an evening when at times L’Ancresse was a beautiful place to be yet at others as inhospitable as it can get when the intermittent heavy downpours blew in from the south-west, the home side lived up to their billing as favourites with an ultimately convincing 20-9 victory over La Grande Mare Douit Dodgers.

But while the hosts did much of the damage in the pairs rubbers, winning both foursomes and the newly-introduced fourballs with something to spare, the singles produced high-class matches that went the full distance as two established Guernsey stars took on a couple of young guns from down the west coast.

When CJ Elmy became the first player to pick up a nearest-the-pin bonus point on the 12th with a cracking tee shot into 16ft, he was also 2 up on Danny Blondel, who had yet to find his best form.

The Martellos’ top player is not one to panic, though, and by the time they climbed the steps up to the 16th tee, he was back to all-square.

The way in which Blondel removed his bottom hand from the grip from his next shot initially suggested he had hit a poor one, but in fact he had split the fairway and the reaction was more from the club’s vibrations through his cold fingers.

From there he hit his approach pin-high 20ft from the hole, while Elmy, having leaked his tee shot out to the right, chunked his second from the sandy turf and came up short of the green.

Although Blondel was visibly disappointed when his birdie attempt came up just shy of the cup, his young opponent failed to get up-and-down, which meant par was good enough for the home player to edge ahead.

Going up 17, both hit virtually identical approach shots to leave themselves 18ft, but while Blondel knocked his putt to within 2ft, Elmy had a real run at his and gave himself plenty of work to do on the way back.

To his credit, he holed out for his par to keep the match alive and send them down the last.

With the honour, Blondel heaped the pressure on his opponent with a quality tee shot, but Elmy responded well with a fine strike of his own.

However, he was unable to turn it into the necessary birdie two and the three-time Island champion lagged his putt up to hole-side to seal a hard-fought victory.

Following on behind them, Martellos captain Steve Mahy was involved in an immense tussle of his own, but this time it was the young gun who took victory as Island junior champion Ollie Chedhomme proved once again why he should be such an asset to Guernsey teams for years to come.

Both played some excellent golf and even Mahy was very impressed when Chedhomme’s response to going 2 down with five to play after Mahy birdied the 13th was to birdie the next two holes – the first by sinking a long putt on 14 and the second with a stunning approach to 3ft at 15 – to get back to all-square.

After halves on 16 and 17, it was Chedhomme who kept his nerve on the last, lagging an excellent long-range putt to within a few inches to secure par while Mahy raced his birdie attempt 8ft past before lipping out with his return putt.

By then, the Martellos were well ahead on the scoreboard, though.

Despite Orlando Abreu claiming the highlight of the opening foursomes rubber when his tee shot clattered into the flag at the par-three seventh to take the bonus point and set up a birdie with Tim Halden draining the 10ft putt, the LGM duo were well beaten by Tom Pattimore and Will Davidson.

Sam Le Huray and Arthur Evans also proved too strong for visiting combination Ben Hibbins and Andy Dawson in the other foursomes, new-father Le Huray’s long birdie putt on the fourth being one of their highlights.

In the new additional fourball rubber, Jake Marshall joined forces with Danny Bisson to pick up six points in defeating Rick Le Poidevin and Tommy Bruley, who had the consolation of a nearest-the-pin bonus on the seventh.