Cornwall Golf Union
Duchy Defeated in Gloucestershire
Cornwall Golf Union's County Men's team were beaten 10-5 in their first away match of the season to Gloucestershire at a very well presented Lansdown Golf Club nr Bath yesterday.
County Captain David Kneebone was forced to make several changes to the team originally selected to represent the county, due to a number of regulars being unavailable. This meant the Duchy travelled with a different looking team. In came fresh blood in the form of two juniors in Truro's County Junior Captain Jared Mortimore and West Cornwall's Finn Rule, both of whom have already impressed this season. Rule's clubmate Alex Glasson was also called up.
The scoreline suggests a convincing win for Gloucestershire and it was, although the Cornish team lost 6 of the days matches on the 17th hole and a further one at the 18th. Gloucester fielded a full strength side as their players all sought a place in their county's team for SW Week in June.
The morning foursomes started well for Cornwall as Joe Cruse and Matt Richards despatched Gloucester stalwarts Nick Day and Dave Wood 5&4 with some scintillating golf where they were 5 under the card in the process.
Rob MacGregor & Ryan Curtis added a half point as their match with Noah Hessey and Fergus Marchington which ended all square on 18. The Cornish pair had been 2 up with three to play but this game was turned on its head as the opposition pairing dug deep and achieved a result.
The remaining three foursomes all went the way of the opposition and all by the same 2&1 margin. In two of the games Cornwall were as many as 3 down at one point but fought back to level games with 4 holes left. This was a short reprieve though as the games went the way of Gloucestershire. Conor Wilson playing with Aaron Stephens, Richard Jasper playing with Glasson and the two juniors Rule and Mortimore all lost their encounters which left the lunchtime score at Glos 3.5 - 1.5 Cornwall.
The two County Captains, David Kneebone and Gloucestershire's Andy Rudge, exchange the singles pairings.
Recovery from this position was always going to be a very tall order and when Glos took the first four afternoon singles there was no way back for the Duchy. The dependable Cruse was beaten 2&1 by Hessey, Richards lost 2 down to Day, Curtis lost 3&1 to Laurie Potter and Stephens lost 4&2 to Andy Hale. Richards had been 1 up with 3 to play and from looking like winning the 16th his opponent Day holed a monster to claim the hole and level the match before going on to win the next two holes as well. Stephens opponent Hale was in excellent form recording an eagle and 6 birdies.
Mortimore provided the highlight of the day as he gained the team (and his) first singles point with a fine 4&3 win over Mitch Waite, a recent top 10 finisher in the West of England Strokeplay Championship. However this win for Mortimore only delayed the inevitable as Glos claimed the overall encounter when Haider Hussain beat Rule 4&3. Jake Phillips beat Glasson 2&1 but the Cornish tail wagged as Jasper beat Tom Workman 1 up, MacGregor thumped Marchington 5&3 and Wilson and Wood halved.
Captain Kneebone said 'As usual all the matches were played in great spirit. The weather and the course combined to give us a good day where we were not quite strong enough against a very good and experienced Gloucestershire team,. We now look forward to welcoming them and the other counties to St Enodoc.'
For Cornwall the attention now turns firstly to the CGU County Week and Amateur Championship which commences this coming Sunday at Newquay GC. Hard on the heels of this will be SW Week at St Enodoc GC from 4th - 10th June, where the Duchy will be seeking to repeat their 2014 success in reaching the English County Finals.
Elsewhere yesterday Devon came from 4-1 down at lunch to beat Somerset 8-7 at Tiverton.
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