Finalists: Michael Bedford and Alex Hogben (Ringway)
Click pictures to enlarge
Pictures courtesy Geoff Garnett
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| Winner: Michael Bedford (Prestbury) | ||
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Finalists: Michael Bedford and Alex Hogben (Ringway) Click pictures to enlarge Pictures courtesy Geoff Garnett |
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MICHAEL Bedford returned to his golfing roots to win the Cheshire Matchplay Championship in style at Bramall Park.
The 19-year-old was a junior member at Bramall Park before moving to play at Prestbury last year and in difficult blustery conditions he was a convincing 6/4 winner in the final over Ringway’s Alex Hogben.
Bedford showed his intent by beating former winner and Cheshire regular David Peel of Stockport, by 3/2 in the opening round and completed the first day with a win over Prestbury colleague Simon Bolam by 2/1.
On the second day his first victim was the experienced Steve Barlow of Ashton-under-Lyne by 5/4 and then he had what turned out to be his toughest task to date as Ollie Carr (Heswall), the youngest player in the field at 15 years took him all the way before securing a one-hole success.
Michael was then up against his friend Iain Davie (Hazel Grove) in the semi-final with Davie being a winner of the trophy two years ago.
In strong winds Bedford kept his nerve to post another one-hole win to book his final slot with Iain Davie volunteering to be his caddy for the final.
In the other half of the draw Alex Hogben began with a one-hole win over Cheshire legend Gareth Bradley (Bramhall) and completed his first day’s work with a 4/3 win over Ringway youngster Sammy Jaafari.
Former winner Neil Andrew (also Ringway) was his first victim on Day Two by 2/1 and the Ringway theme continued in the quarter-finals as Alex took out club colleague Henry Featherstone by one hole.
In the semi-final his opponent was also Trafford-based in the experienced county regular Kevin Kean (Ashton-on-Mersey) a finalists two years ago.
Again in a tight contest Alex kept his nerve for another single-hole success to reach the final for the first time.
But Michael Bedford was not to be denied as he dominated the early exchanges to sweep into a five-hole lead and he kept up the pressure with Alex sportingly conceding defeat on the 15th green.