Cornwall Golf Union
County Team Lose to Somerset
The Mens County Team were unable to replicate the achievement of the U18 boys a few days earlier as they went down to a 9 - 6 defeat to Somerset at a well presented Oake Manor GC, nr Taunton yesterday.
On a bright sunny morning a strong Somerset side included 8 players who have been recently playing in National events.
The ever dependable foursomes pairing of Joe Cruse and Matt Richards were soon in control of their match and put an early point on the board with a 5&4 win in just 2 hours of golf against Phil White and Sam Fernley. The Duchy then claimed point number 2 as Conor Wilson and Aaron Stephens eased out the strong pairing of Jamie Li and Jamie Claire 2&1 to give Cornwall the early advantage.
Things were not looking so good in the back match where undefeated Rob MacGregor and Ryan Curtis met the pairing of Tom Sloman and Will Poole who were on top form, and went on to win Somerset’s first point by a 4&3 margin. The West Cornwall junior pairing of Finn Rule and Bradley Barnes fought hard against the experienced pairing of Ali Balcombe and Jeremy Larcombe but went down 2&1 to bring the overall match all square. When Richard Jasper and Jared Mortimore’s match with Matt Pearson and Curtis Edwards went all the way finishing in a half, the lunchtime score was 2.5 - 2.5.
The wind strengthened across the afternoon singles with the course playing tougher as the greens dried out and became firmer.
All looked good early in the rounds as the Duchy led in the top 5 matches at the 14th tee. This was not to last though and the match turned very quickly, with the 15th and 16th holes particularly being unkind to Cornwall.
Cruse again delivered as he brought home his second point of the day with a 3&2 win over Clare. Then the next 4 matches all went to Somerset as Richards went down 2&1 to Poole and Curtis lost at the last to Sloman. Young Rule looked sure to pick up his first win for the side only for White to birdie 3 of the last 4 holes to take their match before Jasper lost 2&1 to Fernley.
Rule’s clubmate Barnes though kept his nerve when his game also seemed to be going the way of the opposition. His opponent Edwards eagled 15, and followed this with birdies at 16 and 17 to get the game back to all square. Barnes was not to be outdone though and produced his own bit of brilliance, making a birdie at the last to win 1up. This kept Cornwall in the match and still with a chance to halve overall.
That chance was short lived and dashed quickly as both Wilson and Stephens went down 3&2 to Balcombe and Li respectively. Mortimore gained another half point as he finished all square with Larcombe. Cornwall number 10 MacGregor won the final match 3&1 against Pearson.
In other matches played yesterday unbeaten Gloucestershire overcame Wiltshire 9 - 6 and remain favourites to claim this year’s Channel League title whilst Devon beat Gwent 8 - 7.
Cornwall’s next league encounter is against Wiltshire at Perranporth GC on Sunday 28th August with their final match away to Devon at Churston a week later.
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