The drama of amazing comebacks from a foursomes whitewash, which had given Sarnian hearts palpitations in the previous two years, was foregone this time around as the home side lived up to their billing as favourites with an assurance running throughout the 10 men in green – or actually nine men and one boy in official golfing parlance – that they were going to get the job done at L’Ancresse, which they did by winning all three sessions.
Probably the biggest compliment you could pay the solitary debutant in the ranks, teenager Josh Neville, was that he was as composed and calculating as the rest of his much more-experienced teammates.
In fact, playing alongside one of the highest profile Guernsey golfers of the last couple of decades, Jamie Blondel, in his first full Inter-Insular outing in those opening foursomes, it was Neville who came up with the key shots at the key times to make a memorable winning start to his career at the highest level in Channel Islands golf.
It was a clever pairing to make the youngster comfortable on his debut as the two families are good friends and with Lewis Blondel caddying for his dad, one of Neville’s best mates was part of the group, but anyone who had watched the 2026 Guernsey junior champion in Scratch League action this summer knows that he is not fazed when taking on the big names in CI circles and he showed it with a business-like attitude.
Their foursomes rubber against Josh Ozard and Alex Guelpa was still hanging in the balance coming up the 17th, but Neville hit arguably the shot of the morning as he stiffed his approach to a tough pin position for a brilliant birdie.
He then had the honour on the last with the match all-square and once again the situation held no fear for the junior as he stuck his tee shot within 10ft of the flag. Of course, Blondel is the ideal man to put in such a spot and he poured the birdie putt in to snatch the full point.
Another Blondel accompanied Neville in the fourballs in the form of Danny, and he was seriously impressed by his playing partner’s calm execution of shots as Ozard and Guelpa were once again on the receiving end of a defeat.
Neville was unable to make it three from three having drawn the Jersey champion Sam Quail in the Sunday singles, but even that defeat could prove to be a valuable experience in the long run because there is nothing wrong with aspiring to the standards his outstanding opponent sets.
Outside of Neville’s fine debut, the remaining nine Sarnians all contributed at least one point to the cause over the weekend, but that is not to say they were not made to work hard.
All of Saturday’s 10 matches reached the 17th hole at least, with half-a-dozen of those going down the last.
But it says as much about the character of the Greens as their ability that the first defeat did not arrive until the final fourballs match out in the afternoon.
Like Neville, Lewis Marley was part of two different winning pairings on day one as he joined forces with Jeremy Nicolle in a combination of the last two Island champions to claim their foursomes point before teaming up with player-captain Dave Jeffery to double up in the fourballs.
That set Marley up to be player lucky enough to hit the winning putt the following morning – and what a putt it was.
He had held a narrow advantage on one of Jersey’s juniors Jacob Townsend for much of their singles clash, but the talented youngster never gave up and when Marley took three to get down from the left-hand side of the 17th green for a half in bogeys, it took their match down the last.
The Guernseyman regained his composure to hit a beautifully-judged tee shot down the stiff wind and the subsequent 18ft birdie putt found the bottom of the cup with a punch of the air from Marley in the knowledge that it guaranteed overall victory.
By that stage, the hosts had been given the ideal lead-off in the singles by Danny Bisson, who led from start to finish against Ozard, while Andy Eggo quickly established a lead over Guelpa that he would not relinquish.
With three-and-a-half points required from the singles to secure Guernsey victory, their current Channel Islands champion Nicolle took care of the half with a performance of real grit, having fallen behind to an inspired Andy Clarke, to get something out of his contest – even overcoming a dreadful piece of bad fortune coming down the stretch when his chip from the hollow at the 16th hit the flagstick and rebounded back down to his feet.
Further down the order, Danny Blondel completed his own unbeaten weekend as did Jack Mitchell, who saw off one of Jersey’s finest in Matthew Parkman in the singles having formed a strong partnership once more with Bisson the day before.
While Jersey picked up other singles wins through Charlie Kiberd, Jeremy Phillips and Oliver Allchin, Guernsey had long been confirmed as convincing winners.
‘[To win] 4-1 in the foursomes – a bit unexpected after the last few years, but like we said before, we knew if we got a lead in the foursomes we would be tough to beat,’ said captain Jeffery.
‘After nine holes in yesterday’s fourballs every match was halved and I thought to myself, “Crikey, they can’t do it to us what we’ve done to them last two years”. But luckily we all pulled through, won that session as well, 3-2.
‘Everyone contributed something on the Saturday, which is what you want going into Sunday’s singles and yeah, it was a great lead and set us up nicely.
‘And then we had the luxury of picking our singles order. I think it worked out well and we ended up winning this session. We spread all our players around, so we knew that we were strong top-middle-bottom.
‘It’s obviously a luxury to get the points early, but it wasn’t the case that they came in early. They all sort of went the distance, so right to the end the game was in the balance. But luckily the guys came through.’
RESULTS
Foursomes (4-1)
D Jeffery, A Eggo halved with S Quail, C Kiberd; J Blondel, J Neville beat A Guelpa, J Ozard 1 up; J Nicolle, L Marley beat M Parkman, J Townsend 1 up; D Blondel, T Le Huray halved with A Clarke, A Wilson; D Bisson, J Mitchell beat J Phillips, O Allchin 2 & 1.
Fourballs (3-2)
D Blondel, Neville beat Ozard, Guelpa 2 & 1; Bisson, Mitchell halved with Townsend, Wilson; J Blondel, Le Huray halved with Quail, Kiberd; Jeffery, Marley beat Clarke, Allchin 2 & 1; Nicolle, Eggo lost to Parkman, Phillips 2 & 1.
Singles (5.5-4.5)
Bisson beat Ozard 3 & 1; Nicolle halved with Clarke; Eggo beat Guelpa 4 & 3; Marley beat Townsend 2 up; Neville lost to Quail 6 & 5; D Blondel beat Wilson 2 & 1; J Blondel lost to Kiberd 4 & 3; Mitchell beat Parkman 2 & 1; Jeffery lost to Phillips 2 & 1; Le Huray lost to Allchin 2 & 1.
Guernsey 12.5, Jersey 7.5
