Cornwall Golf Union
Seniors Win Away to Gloucestershire
Cornwall Seniors registered a fine 9 - 6 away win at Lansdown GC yesterday defeating host county Gloucestershire.
Having been tied 2.5 all after the morning greensomes, the Duchy team stamped their authority on the match by taking 6.5 points from the 10 afternoon singles.
Cornwall sit second in the Seniors Channel League one point behind table toppers Wiltshire who have played one match less and who yesterday beat Gwent away. The last match for the Duchy Seniors is at home to Wiltshire at West Cornwall on 16th September 2024 but the 'Tractor Boys' will still have a home match to Glamorgan to follow a week later.
[Seniors County Captain Warwick Holland reports]
The penultimate match of a very competitive season with Cornwall sitting second in the Channel league, saw us travel 200 miles to Bath to play Gloucestershire at Landsdown GC, next to the race course. We arrived to be confronted with a fresh breeze and mizzle, at least we felt at home!!
With a couple of regular players down, Gary Stone, Colin Kitt and Mark Blaber (I suppose they must take holidays at some point) we were admirably blustered by last minute replacements of Steve Barns, Ian Ashenden and a new full cap for Shaun Matthews (China Fleet).
Any away match is a task, but with Cornwall being South West Champions for the second year running, opposing teams are now well up for knocking us off our perch. The morning foursomes indeed started out with that in mind for the home team, with our two SW champions (Veale and Knowles) going down. No worries though Norris and our new recruit Matthews (with some excellent top long driving) gave Cornwall immediate bouncebackability. Glos then turned over 'evergreen' Rowe and Kneebone on the last, a half followed before Ashenden & Barns played near perfect positional match play golf to win 3 & 1.
So, all square from the morning Greensomes. Just before we set off for afternoon singles the wind and mizzle really got going, not so pleasant but home from home for us. The top end sprinted off the line and with four matches in we had won three. Credit to Rowe and particularly Veale (from 3 down) and Kneebone (3 under par), all played miraculous if not brilliant chipping around the green, the chip by Veale over a bunker with 10 feet of green to work with was a shot which Ballesteros would have been proud of to win on the last. Even Dr Simon Knowles was impressed “I can’t believe that, how did he do that?”
So we held a good lead, but as so happens with these matches their middle order clawed the fixture back to level. Captain Warwick had received a few advisory words in the previous fixture about loading the tail, which he hadn't heeded. One of those advisers had the privilege of playing in the tail this week and credit where it’s due, they delivered 3 wins and a half out of the final 4 matches on offer. Well done the tail of Johnson, Norris, Ashenden and Vice Captain Jones for securing a 9 - 6 victory.
That win put Cornwall back leading the League, but only for a matter of hours as our leading rivals who lost out to us in the SW County Champs, Wiltshire also won away to Gwent to put them back on top of the league a point ahead of Cornwall. Fortunately our last fixture is at home (West Cornwall) v Wiltshire next month, the victors will probably take the Channel League Championship with them. So all eyes on 16th September to decide the league. Unlike Wilts we’ll also have one eye on the England Finals to win the double!
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