Tehidy Park and Lanhydrock yesterday claimed the spoils as the last of the CGU winter knockout finals took place at Newquay.  On a windy and testing day over the well prepared links four teams were challenged on what were fortunately a dry day with fairly mild temperatures - at least for the players if not the watching spectators.

Tehidy Park - pictured above - won the Cornwall Team Championship for the 12^th time in the competition’s 64 year history as they overcame a spirited Bowood Park team 9.25 - 3.5 and laid to rest the memory of the club’s defeat in the Cornwall Bowl a fortnight earlier.

Meanwhile Lanhydrock won the President’s Trophy for the first time in a very close encounter with China Fleet which was only settled after a play off between the two clubs lead players.

Cornwall Team Championship

The morning foursomes got underway with the Tehidy Park pairing of Rob MacGregor and Ian Veale facing Max Stockwell and Jon Rowe, and it was the Bowood Park pair who drew first blood as they won the first hole. Through 12 holes the match was all square, but then swung in Tehidy’s favour as they won 3 holes on the bounce to stamp their authority winning on the 16^th. Veale and MacGregor maintained their unbeaten record in this year’s competition. The record books will show this win for Veale, a 6 time former County Champion, was in his 200^th CTC appearance.

Tehidy claimed a second point when James Barnard and Martin Langford recorded an emphatic win on the 14th hole against Bowood’s Richard Langham and Neil Childs.

Bowood Park however got their first point in what was to be the first of two battles between greenkeepers. Bowood’s Course Manager, Rob Cook partnered by county junior Simon Hobbs beat Tehidy greenkeeper Matt Lock and Justin Barnard with a win on the 17th hole.

Bowood desperately wanted something else from the morning play and all eyes now focussed on the match involving Tehidy’s Simmons brothers, Richard and Peter (pictured above),who were playing Josh Greenaway and Tom Haley. This tight match ended with a one hole win on the 18^th for Tehidy and the club firmly established their strong position as, Tom Chapman in the 9th man singles match beat Neil Bradley 3&2. All of this meant Tehidy Park needed to win just three of the eight afternoon singles matches to secure the title.

In the end Tehidy took 5.5 points from the 8 available and whilst the scoreline suggests a comfortable victory, some of the matches were close encounters. MacGregor faced Jon Rowe and was pushed throughout as he was taken to the 17^th before sealing a 2&1 win.

With Richard Simmons and Josh Greenaway involved in a real battle which was eventually halved over the full 18 holes, Simon Hobbs of Bowood in match three claimed a singles point with a comprehensive 5&4 win over Justin Barnard on the 14th hole.

In the greenkeeper’s round 2 Matt Lock edged Tehidy closer to the victory line as he beat Cook 4&3. Veale duly recorded another win as he beat Stockwell 2&1 and with further wins from Peter Simmons (3&1 over Haley) and James Barnard (3&1 over Langham) Tehidy had crossed the line for the win. For Bowood Neil Childs at No.8 recorded an impressive 5&4 win over Martin Langford.

The Bowood Park team are pictured below

President’s Trophy

Arguably the best final of this competition took place at the same time as the CTC final and this proved a very close affair which was finally settled in favour of Lanhydrock - pictured above - in a play off in front of both teams, caddies and supporters.

China Fleet - pictured above - established an early lead as they won the first three matches all by a 2&1 margin, with Jack Rendle beating Brain Liggat, Tom Jane winning against Richard Dart and Jack Perkins defeating Tom Orton. However the Fleet’s usually dependable three man middle order only claimed a half point as Lanhydrock fought back. For them Mark Jones beat James Stroud 2&1, Bryan Hancock beat Paul Forse 5&4 and the half came from the game between Colin Mutton and Kevin Jones.

The Lanhydrock team

Attention now turned to the back three matches. When Lewis Woolaway was beaten 3&2 by Lanhydrock’s Matt Wonnacott, the overall match was level. Meanwhile Lanhydrock Captain Stewart Bradley was up against Pete Cooper but Colin Willis was down to namesake Colin Kitt. Willis succumbed to Kitt at the 17^th hole and moments later Bradley completed a one hole win over Cooper to tie the match at 4.5 points each.

Messrs Willis and Kitt were the nominated play off protagonists and with the first hole at Newquay having provided many exciting moments over the years a full field of players, caddies and supporters watched on in anticipation. Both players hit good drives with Kitt having the slight edge. Willis found the bank at the back of the first with his second, Kitt then from the middle of the fairway made a mishit which left him short and right of the hole.

From there though he hit an exquisite pitch to 3 feet to heap the pressure on Willis who faced an awkward shot. Willis made a good fist of the chip but coming from the rough it ran the diagonal length of the green and finished in the fringe some 16 feet from the pin. Advantage China Fleet. Willis though had other ideas and his lengthy putt - pictured above - was always in line and just had enough pace to drop into the cup to loud cheers from the onlookers. Kitt calmly knocked his putt in and what appeared an unlikely half ensued.

At the long par 3 second hole Willis came up just short left with a good shot into the prevailing wind. Kitt however pulled his shot into a position so close to the boundary fence that he could only play his second shot left handed. He got the ball back into play but now faced playing first and needing to apply pressure to Willis. When from the heavy rough he found the front left bunker the advantage was fully in favour of Lanhydrock. Whilst Kitt found the green nicely from the trap, when Willis rolled a putt up Kitt conceded and the victory for Lanhydrock was complete.

Newquay GC Vice Captain Frank Cox welcomed all the finalists to Newquay and said how pleased the club were to have staged the finals.

CGU President Glyn Rowett presented the prizes and thanked Newquay for their hospitality. He also expressed best wishes for a speedy recovery to Newquay GC member and former CGU President Geoff Batty who is currently unwell.

Stewart Bradley for Lanhydrock was a very happy man as he thanked his team for their endeavours across the knockout period. He too thanked Newquay, paid tribute to opponents China Fleet and expressed the gratitude of the teams to the Cornwall Golf Union for their hard work in running and managing the winter knockout competitions.

For Tehidy Park, Club captain David Ryder expressed how pleased he was to see the club win the Shield again and how this win enabled him to ‘forgive Newquay for the drubbing they gave to us in the Bowl a couple of weeks ago’. He paid tribute to Bowood Park for the sporting match and acknowledged the final score did not reflect how close the match was during the afternoon. He thanked his clubs many supporters, which had again been evident despite the difficult watching conditions. He too thanked the host club and the CGU for staging the series of matches and the finals.

Tehidy Park will now go forward to represent Cornwall in the English Champion Club event in September as the CTC winners. This year the Champion Club event is to be staged a little closer to home at East Devon Golf Club, Budleigh Salterton on 23^rd and 24^th September.

CTC Matchsheet

P Trophy Matchsheet

From Top: China Fleet team and caddies, Lanhydrock team and caddies, Tom Chapman. Justin Barnard, Rob Cook aka Ron Book, Jon Rowe, Simon Hobbs, Bryan Hancock, Paul Forse, Colin Mutton, Josh Greenaway, Colin Kitt, Stewart Bradley, Martin Langford and Ian Veale as the rain sets in.