The sun sets on an epic match decided on 22nd hole
THERE was drama at dusk last night at L’Ancresse.
With the first three semi-final pairings of this year’s Guernsey Press Elite Men’s Foursomes Championship having already been decided the best part of an hour-and-a-half earlier, top seeds Danny Bisson and Tom Pattimore eventually joined them after coming through an epic encounter with Daniel Griggs and Lindsay Boyd.
From an early stage it was obvious that the last quarter-final to tee off would be the closest of the lot, but few would have predicted it going as far as the fourth extra hole where, finally and after an extraordinary run of eight consecutive halves, the L’Ancresse pairing emerged victorious.
After all that had gone before, with both pairings continually grazing the hole with birdie putts that refused to drop after some high-quality golf from tee-to-green, it was a shame that a mistake proved decisive.
With the sun having set several minutes earlier, virtually none of the spectators saw Boyd’s wayward drive on the fourth hole, but they could hear it crash into the gorse bushes on the right-hand side of the fairway and the ball was not to be found.
By contrast, Pattimore had boomed a massive drive almost as far as the 150-yard marker.
From there, barring any major mishap, it was always likely to be curtains for Griggs and Boyd and so it proved when Pattimore, having been put just a few yards off the right-hand side of the green by his partner, used his putter to knock the ball up to within a couple of feet and the congratulatory handshakes came.
The top seeds, who will hope to sink a few more putts having barely seen one drop yesterday, will now face the defending champion Jeremy Nicolle and CJ Elmy, who enjoyed far more serene progress into the last four.
They took control early on against Dave Robinson and Andy Eggo before closing out a comfortable victory on the 13th hole.
The best quarter-final in the bottom half of the draw saw Tom Le Huray and Wayne Moore follow up their impressive victory over the second seeds on Monday by knocking out established Island pairing Steve Mahy and Jamie Blondel.
The L’Ancresse duo had taken an early lead when Blondel chipped in for birdie on the second, but by the time they reached the turn Le Huray and Moore had edged ahead.
They doubled their lead with a birdie on the 10th and when their opponents’ par putt on the 12th lipped out, they were 3 up.
Moore then rolled in a putt for a three, dead weight, on the 13th to increase the lead and a couple more pars were good enough for them to clinch the match on the 15th.
They will now face Dave Jeffery and Ollie Chedhomme, who played solidly to see off the challenge of Jeff Domaille and Garry McFarlane in 14 holes.
Guernsey Press Elite Men’s Foursomes Championships
Quarter-finals
T Le Huray/Moore beat Mahy/J Blondel 4 & 3; Jeffery/Chedhomme beat Domaille/McFarlane 5 & 4; Elmy/Nicolle beat Robinson/Eggo 6 & 5; Bisson/Pattimore beat Griggs/Boyd at the 22nd.
Wednesday's semi-finals (4.45pm start)
Bisson/Pattimore v Elmy/Nicolle; Jeffery/Chedhomme v Le Huray/Moore.
