ROYAL Jersey junior golfers finished in 18th place in the All- England Club Championships at Spalding Golf Club in Lincolnshire last weekend.

Although the trio of Nick House, Sam Crenan and Will Taylor, who were representing Hampshire, found the picturesque course in superb condition, they could not adapt to the pace of the breaks on the greens.

Royal Jersey official Peter Crenan said: ‘The conditions were totally different from what we have in Jersey and short iron shots would spin back six to ten feet at times.

And with green side chip shots not getting close enough to the hole to convert the putts, it was hard work for our team.

‘The tree-lined fairways did not cause us a problem with accuracy off the tees into the dog-leg fairways, and the mid to long iron play was as good as any team throughout the weekend.

What cost us was the fact that we took around 30 putts each.

If the boys had played to their form they would have saved around 17 putts between them, and if they had done that they would have finished second.’ The Royal Jersey scored 67 Stableford points each day – the best two of the three rounds counted – leaving them 20 points adrift of the winners, King’s Lynn.

House played some great golf on Saturday and with two holes to play had already collected 35 points, but in poor light he only managed one more point.

Crenan recovered from a bad start with birdies at 15 and 16 and he just missed from ten feet for another at 17.

He then bogeyed the 18th for a total of 31 points.

The Royal were in seventh position on 67 points after the first day and were disappointed not to have been at least five points better off.

Things never got going on Sunday.

Taylor counted with 34 points and Crenan with 33, but with a total of 137 putts taken in the four counting scores, the boys can only reflect on what might have been.