ISLAND golfers Gavin O’Neill and Richard Ramskill miss the Alexander Forbes Channel Islands championship this weekend because both are representing Hampshire.
Both have already impressed in the County this season - La Moye’s Ramskill was an impressive winner of the Courage Trophy while Royal Jersey’s O’Neill has performed solidly in three county matches to date.
Just last weekend O’Neill scored a hole-in-one at Bexley in Hampshire’s 9-3 inter-county league victory against Sussex.
O’Neill, runner-up in the Island Matchplay final recently, said: ‘It was a good day and my partner and I came from two-down with three to play in the foursomes to win one-up after three birdies.
‘My singles match was excellent, too.
I scored a hole-in-one and had six birdies while my opponent had eight birdies.
We were both six feet from the pin in two at the last; we looked at each other and agreed to end the match there.
‘It would have been a shame for either of us to have lost as we both played really well.’ O’Neill’s ace came at the 149-yard seventh using a pitching wedge.
Hampshire face their toughest Strokeplay tournament test of the season on Saturday when they play the 36-hole English Golf Union County Championship South East Group qualifying round at Wildernesse GC in Sevenoaks, Kent.
Ramskill said: ‘It really is a tough competition.
There are around ten counties there each with six players.
They all play 36 holes with the top five scores from the morning and afternoon rounds counting towards the overall aggregate.
The county that finishes top qualifies for the EGU finals later in the year.
‘It’s the third time I’ll be playing in the qualifier and you can’t afford any slip ups anywhere.’ Champions Royal Jersey go into the weekend’s CI Championship in-form after they defeated Royal Guernsey 7-0 in the Hampshire Sevens Channel Islands final last weekend.
Royal Jersey and La Moye both have half a point on the league table following a draw in the Kutch Cup match recently.
L’Ancresse lead the table with a point after they defeated Royal Guernsey.
Both Jersey clubs play Guernsey’s clubs this weekend.
Both Jersey clubs have golfers missing for various reasons and two successes apiece against Guernsey’s challengers and the championship would be decided on a countback of games.
La Moye team captain George Kean said: ‘We’ve taking a young side but I’m confident they will do well.
We are always looking to bring the youngsters through and this championship will be a great experience for them.’ La Moye: George Kean, Richard Alker, Bob Wickings, Chris Stead, Andy Clarke, Laurie Cunningham, Scott Brunton and Charles Le Sueur.
Royal Jersey: Paul Le Chevalier (captain), Robbie Messervy, Christy McLaughlin, Matthew Parkman, Steven Bowen, Anton Swemmer, Trevor Gray and Terry Smith.
All inter-club matches are four foursomes and eight singles.
Article posted on 1st July, 2004 - 12.00am
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