The visitors claimed a home tie against either the Botley Park or North Hants clubs despite being without four of their top players.
CI champion Gavin O’Neill, Paul Le Chevalier, Matthew Parkman and current club champ James Birch were all missing from the Royal’s line-up.
But Stuart Crossan, Trevor Gray, Richard Harrop and Mike McCabe stepped in and all except McCabe won their matches in overcast but windy conditions – with McCabe only missing out after a final green wind-up by his caddy when the match was already in the bag! The best result of the day for the Jersey club was Alex Guelpa’s 2 and 1 win over Bobby Eggo, the former Walker Cup man who was beaten by O’Neill for the CI title a couple of weeks ago.
Said Royal Jersey secretary Darren Attwood: ‘It was an emphatic win.
To go to Guernsey and win is always difficult – but to go there and win 6-1 was far beyond our expectations, especially when we were missing four of our top players.’ Jersey were 6-0 up when McCabe came to the final green needing a 20 ft putt to take his match against David Nicolle.
Said Attwood: ‘We’d won it anyway but Mike’s caddie told him it was 3-3 and the whole match depended on him.
He missed it and ended up three-putting – although I don’t think he fell for the wind-up because he could see all the Jersey players around the green and only one of the Guernsey lads!’ The Royal also beat their Guernsey adversaries in the fourth round last year.
They recorded a 7-0 win – but then they were on their home course.
They went through to face Hayling Island away in the quarter finals and lost 5-2.
This year the Royal beat Les Mielles away in the second round after a first round bye.
They then beat La Moye in the third to earn their clash with Royal Guernsey.
Added Attwood: ‘Playing the quarter final at home probably gives us the best chance of winner the cup since 1983 – the last time we won it.’ Botley Park and North Hants must play their match to decide who comes to Jersey by 10 July.
Full report in today’s JEP.
