1ST TEAM STAY UNBEATEN WITH WIN OVER BEDFORDSHIRE
HERTS 1ST TEAM FROM L TO R, TONY WILKINS, JAMES SURRIDGE, ALEX COLLMAN, ALEX MACARTHUR, JACK SLATER, LUKE COLGATE AND BEN HARMAN. JASON MITCHELL NOT PICTURED.
The County Mens 1st Team continued their excellent start to the 2017 South East Group League season, when they defeated Bedfordshire on Sunday (May 28th) by the margin of 8-4 at Hadley Wood.
The Herts team on the day consisted of 5 of the players who had played in the win against Middlesex earlier in the month, with squad members Alex Macarthur of Letchworth and Jason Mitchell of Porters Park returning into the side, with 19 year old Jack Slater of Letchworth making his 1st Team debut, selected in no small part by virtue of his excellent performance in finishing 2nd in the recent South East Links Championship at Royal St Georges and Royal Cinque Ports earlier in the month.
Bedfordshire finished 2nd in the League in 2016 and defeated Herts 7.5-4.5 at The Millbrook last August, so the team were keen to avenge that defeat and further extend their lead at the top of the league following on from their close victory away to Middlesex.
The Hadley Wood course was in superb condition, presented beautifully with the firm and fast undulating greens providing a fitting challenge for our best golfers in the county.
The morning foursomes ended in a 2-2 tie, which seemed to be a fair result. In the bottom match, the steady play of the Luke Colgate & Jack Slater partnership saw an easy victory by 6&5, while in match 3 the excellent putting of Bedfordshire’s Harry Boyle made the difference in a 3&2 win for Beds over the Herts pairing of skipper Alex Collman and Jason Mitchell. The top 2 matches ebbed and flowed both ways before ending in two halved matches. So all to play for in the afternoon singles!
The top match in the singles was Jason Mitchell against Beds stalwart Paul Kirkwood. Jason would play some sparkling golf which Paul could not match with the point going to Herts with a 3&2 win. In matches 2 and 3 Beds came out on top, with the long hitting Jack Hawksby defeating Alex Macarthur and Captain Alex Collman narrowly losing out to left hander Ryan Smith. From here on out however Herts really excelled and won all the remaining 5 matches left out on the course, most of which were tight encounters. Slater made it a day to remember with 2 wins from 2 and an afternoon victory over their Captain Scott Armitage. James Surridge continued his excellent debut season with a narrow win and Ben Harman produced another convincing win. The tail end of Luke Colgate and Tony Wilkins once again came up trumps when required, with Tony in particular providing a crowd pleasing finish in his match with birdies on 16 and 17 to defeat the hot prospect Harry Boyle on the 17th green.
The match was played in excellent spirit with some truly terrific golf on show from both sides.
The next match for the Herts 1st Team will be another home match at Hadley Wood, this time against Essex, who are hot off their recent victory in the Eastern Counties Foursomes, in early July. Until then Herts have made all the early running and are this years team to catch!
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