Cornwall Golf Union
Seniors are Table Toppers with Back-to-Back Wins
Cornwall Seniors have two Channel League wins on the bounce after back to back Monday wins over Glamorgan and Somerset respectively.
On Monday 1st July the Duchy team hosted Glamorgan at Lanhydrock Hotel & GC and delivered a 9.5 - 5.5 win against a side unbeaten in two years. Then yesterday and away to Somerset at Clevedon GC, the team registered a 9 - 6 win.
[County Seniors Captain Warwick Holland reports]
Following on from our very close match versus Dorset, the ever-busy Cornwall Seniors squads were involved in almost non-stops events over a fortnight.
Nine players travelled from Dorset to participate in the Welsh Seniors Open Championship at Pennard. Six players made the cut and ultimately three finished in the top twenty - Ian Ashenden (China Fleet), Mark Blaber (Carlyon Bay) and a brilliant last round 69 from Richard Jones (St Enodoc) saw our Vice-Captain finish 5th overall and winner of the Welsh Over 60s element. This is on the back of Ian Ashenden finishing runner up (after a play off) in the Scottish Open a week before. These are seriously creditable performances for a minor county against the giant counties of the game. Very well done guys, the country is seeing Cornwall well and truly on the map.
So, on the way back from Wales we all went home to Cornwall to face Glamorgan at Lanhydrock, a county that has been unbeaten for two years. We fielded a slightly weakened team, but spirits were high. Morning Greensomes were edged by the opponents 3 - 2, all but one match went to the last, so a difficult afternoon was ahead of us. Cornwall regrouped and realised that a loss at home, especially to Glamorgan was going to end our ambitions of winning the Channel League this year. The Captain loaded the playing order to hopefully gain an early advantage, it paid dividends with strong wins for Norris, Hawking and Blaber to set the tie fairly even. The tail then got wind of the early momentum amassing an amazing 4 wins and a half from the last 5 matches. A comfortable 9.5 - 5.5 win was achieved against formidable opponents, with the success down to excellent afternoon singles performances by all.
This result saw Cornwall second in the Channel League standings at the half way stage of the season.
Our exhausting exploits were not over, however. A couple days rest and we were nearly all on the road again to Clevedon GC to face Somerset away.
Somerset are in a period of transition, from performing relatively poorly over the past couple of years, they have invested a lot of time and resources into their senior squad. Their first couple of matches saw them lose by a single point and with the knowledge that three of our top players (Ashenden, Ian Veale and Guy Norris) were away playing in the British Seniors this week at Saunton, we were fielding perhaps not our strongest team. Somerset saw an opportunity to spring a surprise.
The resolve of the Cornish team, however, is now high and we edged the morning greensomes 3 - 2. Last week it was our top order players that inflicted the damage on the opposition, Messrs Dave Kneebone (Truro) and Blaber continued that starting spirit with comfortable wins, but Somerset fought back by mid way to be back to a point down overall. This week the Captain loaded his middle order and they delivered handsomely as Simon Knowles (Perranporth) back from injury scored an impressive 4 under gross 6 & 5 win, a battling Colin Kitt (China Fleet) and super strong Gary Stone (Lanhydrock) saw the team over the winning line.
The 9 - 6 win puts Cornwall on top of the Channel League, just ahead of Wiltshire who have played one fixture less. It also sets us up nicely for a severe test ahead next week (Wednesday 17th & Thursday 18th July) to see if we can again win the SW Championships at Kingsdown GC, nr Bath, and qualify once more for the National finals. Spirits are high and realistic ambitions are ahead of us. Well done to all over a demanding few weeks and we look forward to Kingsdown.
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