Jersey champion Gavin O’Neill is hoping to end CI drought in Hampshire

ROYAL Jersey’s Gavin O’Neill will fly to England tomorrow hoping to become the first Channel Islander to win the Hampshire Amateur Championship in nine years.

The former club pro, who regained his amateur status back in 2004, is in fine form having won the Island Championship for the first time in four years last weekend.

And in what could prove a lucky omen, the man he beat in the final was clubmate Christy McLaughlin – the last man from Jersey to land the Sloane Stanley Challenge Trophy back in 2000, when Royal Jersey hosted the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship.

Stoneham’s Ryan Henley came through a matchplay phase laden with Channel Islanders when Royal Guernsey hosted the event two years ago, before beating the host club’s Steve Mahy 5&4 in the final.

But O’Neill, who has been the backbone of the Hampshire IoW & CI teams in both the South East Championship and the South East Daily Telegraph League – despite the travel barrier – over the last five years, must have every chance of becoming just the ninth winner from the Channel Islands in the championship’s 104-year history come Sunday afternoon.