Cornwall Seniors (L to R): Malcolm Edmunds (West Cornwall), Simon Harper (St Austell), Rod Handyside (West Cornwall), Phil Clayton (Newquay), Andy Rowe (front, Capt, Looe), Colin Kitt (China Fleet), Trevor Robinson (Newquay), Colin Ross (Falmouth), David Kneebone (Truro) and Gary Stone (Bude & N Cornwall).

Cornwall’s Seniors Channel League team (pictured above) got their 2018 season off to a very good start yesterday at Launceston GC. In the 27 hole fixture versus Gwent, the team were 3-2 down at the interval but staged a great fightback taking 6.5 points from the available 10 in the afternoon singles to run out 8.5 - 6.5 winners.

Captain Andy Rowe was delighted “This was my first (SCL) match in charge and I am relieved we have got off to a winning start. It is a bit of a new look side and I was a bit nervous about that, but as a team we played very well and there is already a good bond amongst the guys which is good going forward. Two players made debuts today and both contributed with wins so that is also good for the team. Now we have to knuckle down build on the back of this and hopefully maintain this sort of form throughout the season”.

The 9 hole morning foursomes demands a fast start and the Welsh team got the better of the Duchy as they claimed three wins to Cornwall’s two. Captain Rowe partnered by Phil Clayton and stalwart Malcolm Edmunds with debutant Gary Stone were the morning’s Cornish winners, the former by a 3&2 margin and the latter by 4&2.

The afternoon singles commenced and the early signs were not good for Cornwall. Rowe was subjected to an early birdie barrage by his opponent Roger Floyd and was never able to recover going down 4&3. (4-2 to Gwent) Clayton was also down early in his game with Nigel Evans and he too went down by 3&2. (5-2 to Gwent).

Those two losses were quickly cancelled out by a trio of handsome wins for Cornwall as Colin Kitt beat Tony Horton 4&3, Stone claimed his second point of the day defeating Paul Stickler 5&4 and Trevor Robinson who heartily despatched Alistair Pannell 8&6. This levelled the proceedings at 5-5.

Elsewhere a number of tight matches were being played out. Former County Captain David Kneebone tussled with Billy Riddler throughout but managed to gain the advantage by just the one hole. Cornwall now led 6-5. Simon Harper, last year’s Seniors Captain, also got to the 18th hole against Edgar Powell but when he lost 1 down Gwent had levelled things at 6-6. The match was resting on a knife edge.

Colin Ross sizes up his putt on the 17th at Launceston

The news from behind was better with Rod Handyside and Malcolm Edmunds both up. Just ahead of them though Colin Ross was involved in another ding dong tussle with Terry O’Donnell. Ross holed a 15 footer on 17 to go 1 up but was pegged back at the last for a halved match. (6.5 each).

Handyside (above) was 2 up on Gary Thomas through 16 but lost the 17th to his opponent. A half was guaranteed but Rod lived up to his name winning the 18th and delivering a point for the Duchy who now knew an overall draw was the worst they could face (7.5-6.5). As the team rushed back to Edmund’s match with Rob Ware they found the game over with another Cornish win by 3&2 which meant the comeback was complete.

Matchsheet

L to R: Colin Ross, Gary Stone,  Trevor  Robinson, Phil Clayton , Malcolm Edmunds and Andy Rowe with Rod Handyside.