Nicolle gets into last four with great escape

And then there were four after the Men’s Island Championship quarter-finals came to a gripping climax last night at L’Ancresse.

Gareth Le Prevost Sport Editor

Published 23 May 2025, 3:45pm

Nicolle’s reward for his tense victory is a semi-final against Lewis Marley. / Guernsey Press/Gareth Le Prevost

While three of the semi-finalists had long since earned their progression, it was no surprise that the clash between Danny Blondel and Jeremy Nicolle could not be decided in the regulation 18 holes, so closely are the two players matched.

But what transpired when they went down the 19th had all the dramatic elements that make match-play golf so unpredictable.

Nicolle had the honour, but he pulled his tee shot so far left that he had to return to his bag for another ball to hit a ‘provisional’ and as he did so, Blondel safely found position A in the centre of the fairway.

As it turned out, Nicolle hit a fine drive second time around, but it was not needed as some of the spectators who had gone on ahead found his first ball, deep among the ferns beyond the initial line of gorse.

Faced with such a predicament and with his opponent in good shape, Nicolle had become the big outsider of the two.

But how quickly those odds changed.

Blondel momentarily lost focus as he played his second shot and chunked it, leaving himself still 40 yards from the flag, before Nicolle managed to hack out and use the camber of the land to feed his ball back down to the fairway just 10 yards short of the green.

It then became all about who could get up-and-down to make a four, and it was Nicolle who pulled it off, holing his par putt from 6ft after Blondel’s effort from double the distance had stayed above ground.

Nicolle’s reward for his tense victory is a semi-final against Lewis Marley, who ended the remarkable run of teenager Alex Mills in relatively comfortable fashion.

‘I hit the ball better yesterday [in the second round], this was more like Monday for me – a couple of bogeys, a couple of birdies,’ said Marley.

Meanwhile, the top seed also fell last night as Tom Le Huray came out on top of a close encounter with fellow two-time champion Jamie Blondel.

As well as some impressive ball striking from tee-to-green, Le Huray also showed his short-game is in excellent touch with one delicate chip from the left-hand side of the 12th green having short-sided himself being arguably the shot of the day.

Le Huray will now face Stuart Wallbridge, who is quietly going about his business this week and getting the job done by playing some really solid golf, continuing the form he showed in partnering Jack Mitchell to the Elite Men’s Foursomes title at the start of the month.

Last night he was a convincing winner against another L’Ancresse club-mate Sean Mills.