Berkhamsted GC were once again superb hosts as the teams conversed on the heath to resume battle for the annual match between the U16 and U18s teams. Although the rain held off, a blisteringly cold win swept across the course throughout the day and the makers of handwarmers would have been rubbing their hands together at the number that the boys were going through.
Despite a number of late withdrawals, two squads of 11 met for the traditional format of morning foursomes and afternoon singles akin to our own Walker Cup. On this occasion the morning comprised of 5 foursomes and a lone singles match. As the matches made the turn there was nothing much between the teams with the u18s leading in 3, the u16s up in 2 matches and one match all square. As u16 manager, Graham Oram, reminded me though, 9 hole scores don’t mean anything and in some cases, he was proved to be right. In matches 1 and 3, the u16 teams overturned half time deficits to grind out wins by 1 hole and 5&4 respectively. The u18 team in match 2 ran out convincing winners by a margin of 5&4. Everything was pointing to a very close overall match score heading into lunch. However, in matches 4 and 5 proved much closer affairs but this time it was the u18s who managed to overturn half time deficits to gain 1 hole wins. In the lone singles match of the morning session, the u18s edged to a narrow 2&1 victory.
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After lunch battle resumed with 11 singles matches to determine an overall winner. The u16s managed to pick up two wins in the opening 3 games but as the other matches got going, the strength of the u18s came to the fore and they picked up wins in 5 of the top 7 matches and thus ensuring that the shield was retained for another year. The four remaining matches were played to a conclusion and it was one of the youngest players on the days, Jack Wilkin, who put in probably the performance of the afternoon to secure a 3&2 win over one of the u18 stalwarts securing another full point for the u16s. Two of the final 3 matches went all the way to the 18th green and honourable halves were achieved and the final match on the course went the way of the u18s giving them an overall win on the day by a margin of 11pts to 6pts.
