Berkhamsted GC was once again the venue for the annual curtain raiser between the boys u16 and u18 squads. The u16’s were hoping to regain the title for the first time since 2019 but would come up against a determined and experienced U18 team consisting of many of the squad who reached the SE Group final in 2024.
The day involved 6 foursomes matches in the morning and 12 singles matches after lunch. The u18’s asserted themselves early and got ahead in many of the foursomes matches which the u16’s were unable to turnaround. The first four matches went to the u18’s as did match 6, with a solitary point for the u16’s coming from the team of Oliver Bannister of Bishop’s Stortford and Dyrham Park’s Coby Arazi.
The forecasted milder temperatures didn’t materialise, and the competitors retired to a warming lunch ahead of the singles matches in the afternoon.
Ben Sessions got the first winning point of the afternoon and was quickly followed by another u18 win from Luca Ibekwem to edge the u18’s towards a win.
Eddie Cook and Nate Warren played out an exciting, halved match with Nate needing a birdie on the final hole.
River Gardiner put in a strong performance against Louie Bloxham to give the u16’s some hope, but further wins for River’s brother, Jaego, Alex Coombes-Brown, Oscar Freeman and Callum McCarthy got the u18’s over the line.
Two other games between Will Lyons and Ronnie Seagroatt and Joe Kaye and Harrison Preston were halved before the tail end for the u16’s provided two more wins for Marcus Atherton and Louis Batrick-Wren against James Andrews and Matthew Benson-Jones respectively, resulting in a final winning score of 12.5pts to 5.5pts to the U18’s.
