Reinforced Martellos claim back-to-back league titles

A hard-fought, extremely tight and increasingly tense 16-13 victory for the Martellos on Monday night saw them complete back-to-back De La Rue Shield and Nedgroup Trust Scratch League doubles in the two Covid-hit seasons – no wonder their players were joyous, while their club captain Alan Mahy was left looking for a dark room in which to lie down having been put through the ringer once more.

This final lived up to its billing and more, with no one wanting to give an inch to their opposition as the best part of four hours of action on a chilly, brooding evening on the common fittingly came down to a dramatic climax as the last couple of decisive matches came to a head virtually simultaneously.

In among it all, too, there was the fascinating sub-plot of the Le Huray family fortunes.

Of course, those fortunes were mixed, as they would be with father Bill vice-captain to Mahy at L’Ancresse GC where his younger son Sam plays while older son Tom captains the Royal Guernsey GC first team.

This time it was underdog Sam who stole the show, coming in as an 11th-hour replacement for the injured Jake Marshall and claiming the singles victory on the final green which secured overall victory.

It was that same 18th green where, half-an-hour earlier, his older brother Tom and his playing partner Roland Mills had been sucker-punched by an Arthur Evans bolt out of the blue that proved just as pivotal to the result as everything that was to follow.

Throughout their foursomes rubbers, there was little to separate the two pairings although Evans, who was partnering Jamie Blondel, was largely having a night to forget on the greens where nothing seemed to drop for him.

That was until when it mattered most.

While 4-5ft putts had caused him issues, a 45ft birdie putt on that last green was judged to perfection and the roar which Evans let out as it dropped emphasised the relief he felt in contributing such a moment for his side. It could probably be heard in Alderney, visible in the distance across the waters of Pembroke.

To be on the end of a hammer blow like that seemed harsh enough on Le Huray and Mills, but the latter still had the chance to halve the match from 12ft and his attempt looked good all the way, even catching a decent piece of the cup, only to lip out 90 degrees in agonising fashion.

The Royals captain’s mood was tempered somewhat as he made his way to the 16th to find out that Daniel Griggs was just moving dormy 2 up on Island champion Danny Blondel in the first singles match.

The man who has just returned from his attempt to qualify for the British Senior Open went on to close out that match on the next green.

It was in the second singles match, though, that Sam Le Huray was doing his utmost to turn his brother’s mood sour.

Typically, despite having a couple of early Le Huray chip-ins thrown at him that got him playing catch-up from before they had even crossed the Mont Cuet Road, opponent Mick Marley was not going down without a fight and in true matchplay style when both had virtually the same distance for birdie after fine approaches to 16, Marley went first and holed before Le Huray missed so the gap was back to just one.

Crucially, the L’Ancresse man made no mistake with a tester for par on 17 to maintain that lead going to the last.

At that time, news was filtering through that Martellos captain Steve Mahy and Danny Bisson had finished with a real flourish to claim a full-house of seven points in the fourball rubber against Dale Rutledge and Jeremy Nicolle.

Both L’Ancresse players had picked up a nearest-the-pin bonus, with Bisson the only man to find the green into the wind at the 12th, which meant the ‘NTPs’ were even between the sides at three apiece on the night, before he then birdied 13 and Mahy eagled 14 with a four on 15 good enough to seal a five-point victory.

However, with the strong Royals pairing of Nigel Vaudin and Dave Jeffery walking up the 17th dormy 2 up and unlikely to falter in the second foursomes clash against Sean Mills and Tom Pattimore, it was all boiling down to whether one Le Huray could prevent his brother regaining the trophy.

With the honour, Marley hit a fair tee shot into the last, leaving it pin high 30ft left of the flag.

In response, Le Huray did exactly what he needed to do and under the circumstances hit an excellent approach to around 18ft.

With the light fading fast in the cool conditions, Marley under-hit his birdie attempt to leave it short.

That left Le Huray with two putts for the match and as he stood over the first of those, Jeffery was lining up a putt for victory on 17 – the spectators assembled on the 18th tee resembled the crowd at a tennis match as their heads turned from side to side not wanting to miss the decisive moment.

Le Huray pulled the putter back first, though, and lagged his putt up to hole side, with Marley’s congratulatory handshake sealing the Martellos’ overall win just before Jeffery took the consolation of finishing as the 2021 Scratch League’s MVP having won five from five this season.

However, it was Mahy holding the biggest trophy at the end of the evening while extolling the virtues of the competition, despite admitting that it has been getting harder for him to pick a side each time, with more players pushing for spots.

‘It’s great because we introduce other people,’ he said.

‘Will Davidson has played this year, Jake Marshall has come on in leaps and bounds, and I think it helps them.

‘We have a good mix of older, more-established players playing with less-established players. You can see people like Arthur, Jake, Will, Patty, are enjoying it and want to be a part of it. The longer they are part of it, the better they will get for sure.

‘We want members to be involved and want them to want to play and be a bit more competitive.

‘People have fallen away in years gone by and hopefully they will see this, want to get into it again and be part of it because it’s good fun.’