Cheshire Boys Captain receives the Trophy
The Teams
Some people work their fingers to the bone!
By Mark Shields & Colin Shadbolt
In the annual match for the Bickerton Cup played this year at Chester Golf Club, Cheshire Boys lost to Yorkshire Boys by 10 matches to 8. Yorkshire surged into a 5-1 lead in the morning foursomes matches. The Cheshire Boys fought back strongly in the afternoon to win the singles matches 7-5. However, this was not sufficient to overcome the foursomes deficit and prevent the Yorkshire Boys from regaining the trophy
Cheshire Boys were victorious over North Wales Boys and retained the Trophy by 10½ to 7½ at Pryors Hayes thanks mainly to a 5 to 1 win in the morning foursomes
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After 34 years the name of Greenfield is to be engraved again on the Boys
Championship Trophy. Tom Greenfield of Royal Liverpool Golf Club won the event
with fine scores of 73 and 73 for a two over par total of 146. Tom, aged 15 beat
off challenges from more established county boys players to emulate his father,
Jeremy, who won in 1974 at Ringway Golf Club.
Relative
newcomer, Christopher Ashcroft, 17 years, of Prenton was second with
scores of 74 and 74 for 148, narrowly pushing another 15 year old,
Fraser Macleod, of Hazel Grove with scores of 72 and 76 into third
place, thanks to a better final round score.
Delamere Forest was in excellent condition, firm and bouncy with high
rough proving a tough examination.
Results
EGU Nothern Counties Boys Championship
The
EGU Northern Counties Boys Championship held at Arcot Hall on 16th
July was won by Lancashire Boys for the third successive year. The
Cheshire Boys put up an excellent performance and finished in a very
creditable second place, two shots ahead of Yorkshire Boys, the first
round leaders. Halfway through the second rounds a very close
finish appeared to be in prospect. However, the Lancashire team returned
some excellent late scores to take themselves to the top of the
leaderboard. There were some fine performances from the Cheshire team,
in particular Josh Evans (72, 72), Tom Boys (75, 71) and Oliver Carr
(73, 75).
Cheshire
Boys retained their Under 14s, Four Counties, Short Course Championship title at
Broughton Heath, Derbyshire on Friday 30th May 2008. The team comprised James
Newton (Prestbury), Andrew Crosby (Caldy), Jordan Jones (Frodsham) Haydn
McCullen (Didsbury) Cameron Massey (Chorlton cum Hardy) and Lewis George
(Crewe). The tournament format was two medal rounds over 18 holes with the best
five scores out of six to count. After the first round, Cheshire held a
five-shot lead over nearest rivals Staffordshire (a late replacement for
Worcestershire). In the second round, the Cheshire boys overcame their first
round nerves and finished with an impressive 32 shots lead over their nearest
rivals, Nottinghamshire. Whilst this was an excellent team performance, mention
must be made of the performance of Lewis George, the youngest member of the
Cheshire team at 11 years 4 months, who returned the best 36 holes score of 9
over par. A truly outstanding performance from this young player. Final scores:
Cheshire: 608, Nottinghamshire: 640, Staffordshire: 642, Derbyshire: 648
A newsletter was circulated to all Club Junior Organisers
Andrew Crosby (Caldy)
Lewis George (Crewe)
Jordan Jones (Frodsham)
Cameron Massey (Chorlton cum Hardy)
Haydn McCullen (Didsbury)
James Newton (Prestbury)
The Boys Championship continues to be held at Delamere Forest and, this year,
will be played on Friday 25 July.
The closing date for entries is 11 July and the handicap limit is 12.
The Juniors Championship will be held at Eastham Lodge on Wednesday 30 July with
the closing date for entries being 18 July.
The handicap limit is 28.
On
the first day, Cheshire put in a superb performance beating both S&H by 4 1/2 to
2 1/2 in the morning and our "Old Rivals" Lancashire by 4 to 3 in the
afternoon. From this commanding position, having done all the hard work and
needing just a halved match with Notts to guarantee victory; fate and probably
some nerves conspired to extract a huge effort by the Notts Team eager to avoid
a whitewash, producing a final result of 4 1/2 to 2 1/2 to the delighted host
Nottinghamshire team. With Lancashire beating S&H by a convincing 5 to 2, the
Match was tied, with Cheshire and Lancashire having recorded two wins
each. Although it was anticipated that the count back of individual matches
would give the result to Lancashire. The Tournament Rules to settle a tie only
take account of outright wins, which were 10 apiece, requiring therefore a
"Sudden Death Play-Off" to produce a winner. Tom Boys from Royal Liverpool,
Cheshire's No. 1 was therefore selected to meet Lancashire's James Wilson from
Formby. The first hole was halved with pars, after which Tom struck a
magnificent iron to about two feet on the par 3 second, to win the Tournament
for the Cheshire Team and a mightily relieved Team Manager Mike Jones, who had
aged about five years during the morning's play. It was believed that this was
the first play-off since 1991 when Lee Westwood won for Notts at
Hillside. Cheshire have an excellent, well motivated, close knit Squad this year
who benefited from a weeks solid coaching in Menorca over the February half term
holiday, and Cheshire hope that this early success augers well for the rest of
the season.
The
Cheshire Four Counties Team are shown in the attached pictures together with
Team Manager Mike Jones. Lead by Martin Thomas the Boy's Captain from Royal
Liverpool, the Squad comprised, Tom Boys (Royal Liverpool), Josh Evans (Mere),
Sam Connor (Sandiway), Jon Little (Heswall), Martin Leese (Astbury), Dominic
Barnes (Caldy), and James Gutterman (Warrington). Congratulations to the
Cheshire Boys for a fine performance. Of the many fine individual performances,
mention must be made of Martin Leese's outstanding run of birdies on the closing
holes to secure victory in a great contest with Paul Howard from S&A, to close
out the Lancashire match.Colin Shadbolt
Twelve
of the County's best Boys took their half term holiday in Menorca this year on a
Coaching Programme organised by the Cheshire Union.
The Squad was based at Son Parc Golf Club Menorca and enjoyed a week's decent weather on dry firm surfaces. The Boys got the full benefit of the opportunity, starting with a 7:30am Breakfast, with tuition and Skills Testing in the morning sessions, various forms of game were played in the afternoons, with some more practice before Dinner, a detailed de-briefing was carried out each night after Dinner. Wherever possible we concentrated on the critically important aspects of the "Short Game" and distance control, areas of the game which are at best difficult to achieve on our typical "Winter Surfaces".
Throughout
the week a running total of points were awarded for the various tests and rounds
played. The overall result was close, with Josh Evans 0.4 Handicap from Mere
G&CC running out as the final winner.
We believe that all the Boys got a great deal from the week, which hopefully may also rub off into some of Matches throughout the coming Season. We are indebted to our Coaches, Alan Thompson and Peter Barber, for the enthusiasm, skills and dedication which they give us, together with our Duty Execs, Mike Jones and Chris Peterson, who seemed to be always on the go throughout the week. Particularly thanks also go to Hugh Brown, Paola Ferroni and their team at Son Parc for the access which they provided together with the co-operation we received.
Finally
a word of appreciation to the Boys who approached the week with an excellent
attitude, which did not diminish during the Programme. The Junior Committee
will be reviewing the experience over the next weeks to draw conclusions and
recommendations from this "Trial" exercise
Colin Shadbolt
17th February 2008