Warwickshire Golf
Under 18s at Home Against Worcestershire at Walmley
WARWICKSHIRE v WORCESTERSHIRE: BOYS' (u18)
WUGC MATCH REPORT
BOYS Team
Sam EASTERBROOK (c) (OLTON)
Josh GARDNER (COVENTRY)
Sam KNOWLES (WISHAW)
Freddy MONTGOMERY (MOOR HALL)
Louis TAYLOR (LADBROOK PARK)
Will HARTLE (LADBROOK PARK)
Ben STORER (MOOR HALL)
Joey WILLIAMS (MOOR HALL)
Team Warwickshire's Boys (u18) first home fixture of this league season took place on a (thankfully) sunny May day at the beautiful Walmley Golf Club.
The unfortunate news of Captain Oliver Clark being side-lined by injury was only made more palatable by the availability of our England international Sam Easterbrook, who stepped in as Captain for the day.
Sam led the team out in the morning foursomes, partnered by Josh, and easing to a 4&3 victory to get the home team's first point on the board. Second pairing of Sam Knowles and Freddy did not have it so good, falling to a 5&3 defeat to even things up. However, our third and fourth pairings managed to edge extremely close matches with results of WON 1 UP (Louis and Will), and 2&1 (Ben and Joey) respectively. A healthy 3-1 lead was therefore taken into the afternoon singles.
The pleasant conditions continued, to the great relief of players, parents and officials alike; and once again Captain Sam began proceedings. He ended his playing involvement extremely early in the day, with an emphatic 7&6 victory, securing the first of 3.5 points needed by Team Warwickshire, before going back out onto the course to support his team-mates. There followed hard-earned victory for Josh (2&1), and a half-point secured by Freddy (A/S), leaving us one short of the finish line with 3 matches still out on the course.
Ben's match swung agonisingly from a 2 up lead to all-square on the last, which would be a challenging uphill par 3 playing into a fresh breeze and with a pin on the uppermost of 3 significant tiers. Ben managed to hit the green, but with 50 or so feet to the hole, and his first putt was left 5 feet short. His opponent missed the green and chipped to a similar 5-foot distance with his second shot. With 2 matches behind, the significance of Ben's putt was not immediately apparent - as he holed out to secure victory; his opponent missing his own opportunity to secure a half.
With both the last 2 matches going the way of the visitors, the required 3.5 points had been achieved with no margin for error, meaning (from the Warwickshire perspective) that at least it was only the 18th green in tiers! (I'll get my coat).
Well done to the lads, having produced some excellent golf on the day, and commiserations to our gracious opponents, with this match having been played in a great spirit throughout.
Some photo-memories of the day, with thanks to President Mark, Mark's wife Debs, Richard Clark and of course past-President Graham Barton…all on hand to provide much appreciated support.
Team Warwickshire Boys (u18)
Graham Barton (Past President), Debs Reynolds, Mark Reynolds (President)
Richard Clark (Head of Boys' Golf), Simon Taylor (Boys' Team Manager)
Thanks to Walmley GC, it was an absolute pleasure to see the course and clubhouse in such fine form, and thanks as always to the parents of our squad for helping to get the boys available and supporting them so proudly.
Match results sheet attached.
The next fixture for the Boys' team is the hugely important EG Boys County Championship, to be played at Kirby Muxloe GC on Wednesday 31st May.
Simon Taylor
Warwickshire Boys Team Manager
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