Cornwall Golf Union
U16s in Great Win over Devon
[County U16s Team manager Mark Wallwork reports]
First and foremost, we want to thank the Cornwall Golf Union and St Enodoc Golf Club for hosting the event and providing excellent food and hospitality to both Devon and Cornwall players throughout the day. We would also like to thank St Enodoc, Steve Chapman, the Devon County U14 / U16 managers, and everyone who worked together to make this fixture possible at such short notice. And we would finally like to extend our thanks to the Devon players, parents and managers for making the trip to Cornwall, both teams were in great spirits and had a friendly but competitive game together.
As a result of the harsh winter weather, all of our golf courses across the county have suffered greatly. We would like to express our gratitude and understanding to St Austell Golf Club, with whom we had the original fixture, but the adverse weather conditions rendered the venue unplayable.
The weather conditions on match day proved to be of two halves. During the morning foursomes, we had persistent rain and moderate breeze. In the afternoon, the rain had given way to strong winds gusting to around 50 mph. Throughout the day, our county boys demonstrated resilience, strength, and determination in the face of the elements, as did a strong-spirited Devon County team. The course was in good condition and played well.
The foursomes pairings were Tommy and Heath, Tiernan and Joab, Alex and Archie and Jay and Sam.
In the morning foursomes Cornwall started off strong with all but the first group holding the lead on the 4th hole Tiernan and Joab 2up, Alex and Archie 1up, Jay and Sam also 1up. Catching up on the 8th hole Tommy and Heath were struggling to find their swing as they were 4 down, Tiernan and Joab were holding their lead and staying 1up, Alex and Archie was playing confidently and extending their lead to 3up, Jay and Sam the home boys doubling their lead to 2up. Moving on through the round the three leading groups became stronger and finishing the foursomes match with Tiernan and Joab winning on the 17th 3&2, Alex and Archie in control ending their match on the 13th by 7&5, Jay and Sam also with a confident finish on the 14th finishing 5&4, Tommy and Heath were having a real battle and brought the match down to the 17th, where the boys shook hands and the match ended 2&1 in Devon’s favour.
At the lunch break Cornwall held a 3 – 1 lead over our neighbours.
A change of kit was required after the mornings heavy rain and this was followed by lunch kindly put on by the catering team at St Enodoc. Then all were ready for the singles matches in the afternoon. As I was the starter in the afternoon matches, I caught up with the boys on the 6th hole Tommy AS, Tiernan 1up, Joab AS, Heath 2up Alex 1up, Archie 1down, Jay 3up, and Sam was 1down.
Moving on to the 12th the wind was getting stronger, but the boys seemed to embrace the conditions. Tommy 1up, Tiernan 2up, Joab AS, Heath 2up, Alex 2up, Archie 3up, Jay 2up and Sam 1 down, as the matches were coming to a close the conditions started to become really challenging with the winds gusting around 50mph but our boys marched on through the elements finishing with Tommy winning 2up, Tiernan winning 2&1, Joab winning 2&1, Heath winning 1up, Alex winning 3&2, Archie winning 5&4. Jay battled on through narrowly losing out on the 16th 3&2, and the final match with Sam Hanton coming from behind to going AS on the 17th and winning his match 1up on the 18th.
Cornwall had taken 7 of the 8 singles on offer and this meant an overall result of Cornwall 10 Devon 2. A super performance by the Duchy Boys!
Cornwall U16 Boys Team: Thomas Miller (Newquay), Tiernan Wallwork (Tehidy Park), Joab Atkins (Trethorne ), Alex Dawson (Perranporth), Archie Haynes (Carlyon Bay), Heath Gillespie (Newquay), Jay Dingle and Sam Hanton (both St Enodoc).
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