Cornwall lost their opening 2015 Channel League fixture 9-6 away to Gwent at Llanwern GC yesterday in disappointing fashion. After the successes of last year this was back down to earth with a bump. Strong performances throughout the remainder of the campaign can still see the Duchy claim honours but better individual and collective team efforts will be required.

In the morning foursomes there were wins for Joe Cruse playing with Adam Curtis and the Perranporth duo of Conor Wilson and Sandy Kirton but three defeats for the other pairings meant the Cornish team were 3-2 down at the lunch interval and needed 5.5 points out of the ten afternoon singles.

Despite early signs of rallying, in the end only four of the team took wins and all of these came from players who were part of the English County Finals winning team from last year. Joe Cruse, Rob MacGregor, Matt Richards and Conor Wilson won their matches but with the rest of the team losing the final result was 9-6 in Gwent's favour.

County Captain Richard Simmons was philosophical after the defeat saying "Unfortunately several players simply did not perform very well at all and we paid the price for some pretty sloppy golf and basic matchplay errors. We did not deserve to win on the day and well done to Gwent". 

Matchsheet

Cornwall's next fixture is at home to Gloucestershire and this takes place at St Enodoc GC on Sunday 10th May 2015.