The 2024 Junior League came to a season finale at a sunny Old Fold Manor on Sunday 27th October, with Hanbury Manor winning the VER Shield and Enfield edging out Sandy Lodge in a dramatic VER Plate.
Four pools of 4 Clubs battled it out over the 2024 season, each pool’s clubs played each other home and away, matches comprising of 7 players per team, contesting x3 Singles matches and x2 Greensomes to finish top of their respective groups and progress to the 2-legged semi-finals.
Hanbury Manor, Cainhoe Wood, Enfield and Sandy Lodge finished top of their groups with the semi finals matching Hanbury Manor against Enfield and Sandy Lodge taking on Cainhoe Wood.
With Cainhoe Wood defeating Sandy Lodge and Hanbury Manor overcoming Enfield in the semis, they would battle it out for the prestigious VER Shield.
It was not the end of the road for the losing semi-finalists, as they too would contest a final for the VER Plate.
And it was the VER Plate final that would produce the closest contest and drama filled. With one of Sandy Lodge’s singles players a no show, they were already a point down having to forfeit the match, but the remaining 6 players produced a great display to pull the tie back to parity after a fantastic finish by Amiya Raja, 2 down with 2 to play, she won both holes to finish all square and the match score finished 2.5 – 2.5.
This meant sudden death drama, with Amiya going back out against Freddie Buck. Having both driven down the middle, Amiya then played a lovely shot into the green only to discover shortly after she had mistakenly played Freddie’s ball, which brought a sad conclusion to a great match but both teams played in a great spirit and should be very proud of their accomplishments.
The VER Shield was a more one-sided affair, Hanbury Manor’s Juniors, debuting in the 2024 league, were on fire and secured a 5-0 result over a strong Cainhoe Wood team that had won the Shield in 2022 and the Plate in 2023. Some of the singles matches were closely fought and at times could have gone either way but there were resounding victories in the Greensomes, with both Hanbury’s pairings gelling well.
Great achievement by all four clubs making the finals and doing their clubs proud. We look forward to the 2025 season.
VER Plate winning team from Enfield comprised of Freddie Buck, Izzy Codling, Alfie Jakobsson, Dylan Forbes-Pike, Zak Mundy, Ralph Walker and (not in picture) Tyrese Danso
VER Shield Runners Up from Cainhoe Wood comprising Ed Tubridy, Charlie Simpson, Jayden Slender, Kaiden Greenwood, Rory O’Riordan, Luke Lehri and Mathieu Beeming.
VER Plate Runners Up from Sandy Lodge comprising Yash Bid, Aryan Kapoor, Sam Gleeson, Arun Karunadasa, Amiya Raja and Lennon Martin
Trophies sit proudly on display
