Remarkably the Sarnians have been whitewashed by Jersey in the opening alternate-shot sessions for the last two editions of the Men’s Inter-Insular – a format they were traditionally strong in previously – and yet in 2024 they went on to win back the trophy with an 11-9 triumph at L’Ancresse, before last year they staged an amazing comeback at Grouville to retain the trophy as the match ended in a 10-10 draw.
However, captain Dave Jeffery wants to get out of that habit this weekend and admits that another foursomes whitewash is definitely not the plan, even though he can joke about the prospect.
‘Well I could say nothing different because we’ve walked away with the trophy both times, but it would be nice to actually get some points, or ideally a lead on Saturday morning – although I don’t have a speech for that,’ he said.
‘We’ll have to play it as we go, but we know we can come from behind and we know if we get a lead, we’ll be very hard to catch.
‘We were 5-0 down last year, we were 5-0 down the year before and I think 4.5-0.5 down the year before that, so we’ve dominated the last two sessions.
‘I think everyone would prefer not to make it quite as hard on ourselves going into Sunday’s singles, but I think we were 7-3 down overnight for the last two years and managed to win or retain.’
Jeffery acknowledged that as holders, and with home advantage, his side have to be considered favourites, but they can take nothing for granted against a Jersey side that has a real mixture of youth and experience.
‘There’s no real surprises,’ said Jeffery about the opposition’s line-up.
‘We played the scratch weekend in Jersey a couple of weeks ago, we saw young Aiden Wilson playing for the Royal Jersey team and Ollie Allchin playing for the La Moye team, so I expected those two to be picked and they were.
‘Then you’ve got the familiar faces in Alex Guelpa, Matthew Parkman, Sam Quail, Josh Ozard and, of course, Jeremy Phillips, a very steady player, their senior champion. He’s always a pick in my eyes.’
Jeffery himself is taking on a player-captain role this time around, having stood down from the captaincy last year after he was selected in the side and Steve Mahy took over the managerial reins.
Mahy will be one of the captain’s lieutenants this time around along with Tim Halden, Dave Robinson and Adam Martel.
‘I’m going to be captain for the weekend, playing captain, but all the admin and responsibilities – team order, playing partnerships and what have you – that’ll all be sorted beforehand,’ said Jeffery, who added that the vibe within the playing group is upbeat.
‘We sort of rinse and repeat really every every time we do it – we pick the team, we do our practice sessions and we go out there and see what we can do.
‘We all hope to play our best – some of us won’t, some of us will exceed expectations – and we hope we get enough points to win.’
TEAMS
Guernsey: Danny Bisson, Danny Blondel, Jamie Blondel, Andy Eggo, Dave Jeffery (captain), Tom le Huray, Lewis Marley, Jack Mitchell, Josh Neville, Jeremy Nicolle. Reserve: Sean Mills.
Jersey: Oliver Allchin, Andrew Clarke, Alex Guelpa, Charlie Kiberd, Josh Ozard, Matthew Parkman, Jeremy Phillips, Sam Quail, Jacob Townsend, Aiden Wilson. Captain: Mark Tostevin.
Schedule
Saturday, 8am – Foursomes; 1pm, approx – Fourballs.
Sunday, 8am – Singles.
