Captain Castor Morris of Sandy Lodge pictured with the Cheshunt Salver.
Over the Easter break, a combined Boys U16 & U18 team played the annual Cheshunt Salver match against near neighbours Essex at Dyrham Park GC. Coming off the back of defeats over the previous two years, the squad was keen to deny their Essex counterparts a three in a row win and that is exactly what they did.
The format of the day is 6 foursomes matches in the morning and 12 singles matches in the afternoon. Hertfordshire got off to a fantastic start by winning all 6 foursomes matches. For the U16s, home club member Coby Arazi and partner Eddie Cook got the ball rolling with a fine 2&1 victory. There were also resounding victories for Ronnie Seagroatt and Jamie Jackson by 8&6 and for Alex Coombes Brown and his partner Daniel Hobbs by a margin of 5&4. For the U18s, Matthew Benson-Jones and Finlay Rennie secured the 4th point of the morning with a convincing 4&3 win. The final two U18 matches on course were much closer affairs. Captain for the day, Castor Morris and Patrick Donovan were having a ding-dong battle with their opponents from Essex, eventually seeing them off 2&1. In match 6, the Hanbury Manor pair of Will Lyons and Harrison Preston were the only pair taken to the final hole. However, a safe par secured another point for the home side and an incredible 6-0 sweep on the morning foursomes.
Hertfordshire’s inspired form continued in the afternoon when they secured a further 8 singles wins. The U16s won 5 of the 6 matches in their series with wins for the aforementioned Ronnie, Jamie, Eddie, Alex and Daniel, whilst there was a little fight back from Essex in the U18 series of matches when they secured 3 of the 6 matches. Further wins for the Hertfordshire U18s were secured by Finlay Rennie by 4&3, Harrison Preston by 7&5 and by Castor Morris who despite being 1 down with 2 to play won both holes to secure a 1up win. All of which resulted in an overall victory by 14 points to 4 and the Cheshunt Salver regained for the first time since 2019.
