Report from Boys Under 18’s Manager Gerald Duddy;
The County U18 boys travelled to The Inspiration Club in Northolt for their latest South East Group leagues games with Middlesex and BB&O. Although the sun was shining, there was a cool breeze across this relatively new inland links and this proved testing for many. Despite missing several key players who were representing their schools at national finals, expectations were still high when we met at the nearby West London Golf Centre for a pre-match meal and warm up after the success in the opening round of games.
After two well deserved wins in the opening round of matches earlier in April, two more wins against inexperienced teams would go along way to securing a place in September’s group final. Luca Ibekwem was the lead man once again but was unable to secure any full points but did battle back from 2 down on the 16th tee to get a half against the Middlesex captain. Ben Sessions, fresh off his top 6 finish at the McEvoy trophy secured an early 6&5 win against his opponent from Middlesex, but found his other opponent a little more dogged and finally lost 1 down when he lost his tee shot on the final hole. Louie Bloxham ground out a hard-earned win against his opponent from BB&O, but found his opponent from Middlesex having the round of his life to secure a half. Jamie Jackson lost both matches with his opponent from BB&O a reported 6 under for the 12 holes they played. With 4 matches played, the team found themselves 1-3 down to BB&O and tying 2-2 with Middlesex. What could the back order deliver?
Match 5 saw Jaego Gardiner from Porters Park make his season debut and he managed a narrow win over Middlesex on the 18th green, their opponent from BB&O had long since left the scene with two compelling wins. This meant that if we were to get anything from the BB&O match we would need the last three games to go our way. Matches 6 and 7 were the only games to provide two wins on the day. Eddie Cook from Bishop Stortford GC and making his debut at this level played commendable golf to earn convincing wins. Likewise, Will Lyons extended his 100% record with a 6&5 win over Middlesex and a closer 3&1 win over BB&O making 16 pars along the way. Anchor man Harrison Preston found himself involved in two tight matches. Whilst he managed to get a win against college friend from Middlesex by 2 holes, he was unable to peg his other opponent back from an early deficit and eventually lost on the 17th green.
Overall this meant a 6-2 win over Middlesex and a narrow defeat by a margin of 5-3 to BB&O, the same score we had beaten them at Brentwood. Hertfordshire still sit atop of the Central league and the other 3 counties will play each other at the end of May, so we will know exactly what we need to do when we play our final league games on Sunday 13th July at Verulam and hopefully we’ll have a full panel of players to select from.
