Youngsters show their worth but Jersey dominate at La Moye

Chloe Gaudion was the only unbeaten member of either green team as she contributed a win and two halves to the Sarnian women’s cause, while on the men’s side Conor McKenna was the only visiting player to finish with two points to his name as Jersey won both the men’s and women’s inter-insulars in convincing fashion.

Guernsey were the holders of the men’s Challenge Trophy going into the match, but their defence got off to the worst possible start as they were whitewashed in the opening foursomes.

Jersey carried that momentum into Saturday afternoon’s fourballs, picking up another four points with the only Sarnian solace provided by the 16-year-olds McKenna and Jayden Tucknott, who held their nerve to beat Josh Ozard and Andy Clarke with McKenna holing the winning putt from 10ft on the final green.

‘There were 14 birdies and an eagle in that game and it went to the last, so that was some golf they played,’ said Guernsey captain Dave Jeffery.

Things only went slightly better for Guernsey’s women on the first day as they picked up a point in each session.

Mandy Webber and Jennie Ballay got them on the board in the foursomes thanks to a hard-earned half against Iman Hamid-Wilkinson and Sue Langdon.

That result was matched by the two Chloes – Domaille and Gaudion – who fought back impressively from 2 down with three to play to take a share of the spoils with Helen Lagadu and Louise Kirton-Read.

Gaudion then joined forces with Michaela Stacey-Goldberg in the afternoon to claim Guernsey’s first win of the day in the fourballs as they beat Lagadu and Kirton-Read.

Despite needing a nigh-on impossible nine points out of 10 to retain the trophy, Guernsey’s men started the Sunday morning singles brightly and were up early in several matches.

At the top of the order, Tom Le Huray closed out his encounter with Jeremy Phillips on the 17th and immediately behind him the younger McKenna brother doubled his personal points tally for the weekend with an impressive 3 & 2 success over Josh Ozard.

However, Jersey turned things around down the order and after Richard Ramskill had picked up their first point of the session against Tucknott, the winning moment came when Charlie Kiberd, who was the Roy Mahy Trophy winner as the match MVP, defeated Jamie Blondel.

Guernsey’s two Dannys – Blondel and Bisson – claimed wins over Clarke and Sam Quail respectively to add a couple of consolation points to the final score.

‘All the juniors acquitted themselves well and gave a good account of themselves,’ said Jeffery.

‘As well as Conor and Jayden, Rory [McKenna] played very well on both days and was unlucky not to get at least a point.

‘La Moye is a massive home advantage and it was a roasting hot weekend, too. But we got the starts we needed in quite a lot of the matches, going 1 or 2 up early on, but then half-an-hour or 45 minutes later we were back to all-square or behind – we just did not establish a real foothold to take control of those matches.

‘It would not have been unfair on Jersey if they had won the first two sessions 3-2, then at 6-4 it would have been a completely different story going into the singles, but as it turned out the message was “everyone has to win their game due to the position we were in”.’

Four Sarnians also contributed points to the tally on the concluding morning in the women’s singles.

Gaudion completed her unbeaten weekend with a half against fellow youngster Iman Hamid-Wilkinson and there were also halves for Di Stenner and Bonny Hamilton.

Chloe Domaille was the sole singles winner for Guernsey with a 1 up win over Kirton-Read.

Jersey’s Hannah Scriven won the Joan Bichard Trophy as MVP.