For at the end of a fascinating day’s play, both teams tied 15 matches all and then tied on countback, 33-33.
As captain for the day, Ian Coombs-Goodfellow said afterwards: ‘This must be the closest Gilson Cup match in all of its 73 year history.
I have never known an inter-insular like it.
‘At the start of play no-one could have predicted how the day’s competition could have gone.’ For following the men’s doubles, which Jersey won 5-4, thanks largely to some terrific play by the top pairing of Mark Constable and Chris Cotillard, as they recorded straight set victories over all three Guernsey pairings, including a 21-20, 21-17 win over Paul Le Tocq (the former Welsh international), partnering Chris Dragun, the women’s team went down by the same scoreline; this time in reverse.
So it was scant consolation that although Jersey’s first ladies’ pairing of Kerry Coombs-Goodfellow and young Kim Ashton inflicted straight-set victories over the second and third Sarnian pairings of Bridgit Podger and Wendy Trebert and Gayle Lloyd and Charlotte Koller, respectively, before going down 20-22, 13-21 to Elena Johnson and Sarah Garbutt, the ladies’ team could not equal the success of the men’s pairings earlier that day.
This meant that the match, 9-all going into the afternoon’s session, would be determined by whichever island side did best in the mixed doubles.
Initially it looked as if Guernsey would force the pace, as they took a 15-14 lead into the last match of all.
However, the partnership of Clive Dunford and Kim Ashton saved the day for Jersey with a nail biting three set victory over Guernsey’s Andy Orme and Wendy Trebert 21-14, 10-21, 21-12.
In front of a crowd of over 50, watching from the balcony, the entire day’s play was to be determined by this one last match.
Any win for Guernsey would have been good enough for them to win the Gilson Cup while a straight set victory for Jersey would have resulted in an outright win for the hosts.
As it was the game, the matches and the inter-insular all ended all square.
Meanwhile full credit must go to Dunford and Ashton in the mixed who, despite taking the opening set, did extremely well to fight back to win the deciding set after comfortably losing the second.
Other games to take note of included Lucy Burns and Solenn Pasturel’s 21-10, 21-18 win in the ladies’ doubles against Lloyd and Koller and an even closer contest, before they finally defeated Podger and Trebert, 23-21, in the third set.
Before that they had lost to Johnson and Garbutt in straight sets.
In the men’s competition Constable once again showed that he is simply in a league of his own; although his pairings, in both the men’s and mixed doubles, saw solid support from the second men’s pairing of Gavin Carter and Clive Dunford who produced some of their best badminton of the season in defeating both the second and third Sarnian pairings in straight sets.
They also took Le Tocq and Dragun to three sets before running out of steam.
Meanwhile, in retrospect, the combination of Ian Coombs-Goodfellow and Chris Guillochon deserve praise as they came extremely close to pulling off a remarkable win over the Sarnian top pairing before they lost 11-21, 21-18, 18-21 – their lack of any competitive play at this level this season proving their undoing.
At the end of a fiercely competitive, but very sportsmanlike competition, Steve Watson presented the Blampied Trophy for the best individual performance to Jersey’s Mark Constable.
