Our Mixed Age team travelled to Brailsford Golf Course to take on Derbyshire’s Mixed Age team. Brailsford is an unusual course in that there are just 12 holes, and after that the players play 1,2,3,6,11 and 18 again as the remaining 6 holes. Our boys coped well with this layout and even had the sight of some locals preparing to tee off on the 1st from the yellow tees and seeing one of our singles matches having to tee off over their heads from the white tees that were about 100 yards back.
Derbyshire started with only 11 players as one boy’s grandad had forgotten to come and pick him up so when he did arrive his game was deemed a walkover.
In the other match in the Under 18s pairings, the 12 holes seemed to act as an incentive to Matty Griffiths of Lymm who won his foursomes with Maxi Moore of Sandiway in the morning 7&6 and then won his singles by the same score in the afternoon, so he never got to play the additional 6 holes, from the other tees.
In the Under 16s games, Maxi’s brother Mason Moore won his foursomes with Will Furness from Ringway 4&3 and they both followed this up by both winning by the same score in the singles.
Thomas McCann of Hazel Grove and Pierce Freeman of Delamere Forest won their foursomes 5&4 but both decided to do better in the afternoon, with Thomas winning 6&5 and Pierce winning 6&4
In the Under 14s matches Jacob Thorpe of Heaton Moor and James Harrison of Sandiway won 5&4, whilst our 2 youngest who are both Under 13s this year Aidan Lam of Prestbury and Alfie Ogden of Wallasey won 4&3.
Having established a 6:0 lead at lunchtime the team all seemed keen to see if the afternoon could go better.
Maxi was first out and won 3&1, as mentioned Matty won by 7&6. Jack Barnes from Romiley won 3&1 and Jack Walker also from Romiley won 4&3, which was definitely the day’s most popular score.
The Under 16s scores are listed above and the drama unfolded as the Under 14s finished their matches with all the other players and their parents watching alongside the County Coach John Heggarty and the Team Manager Andrew Henshall.
First Aidan won 5&3, then Alfie followed that with a 2&1 victory. But with 5 holes to play both James and Jacob were all square. At wich point Jacob went up a gear to win the next 3 holes and finish with a 3&2 win.
James then gave the crowd of by now over 25, a great spectacle as he was 1 up after the 17th, and in danger of dropping a half point after he drove into the trees on the 18th, thankfully James’s opponent followed him and whilst James was able to chip out to the middle of the fairway the Derbyshire player caught a branch going for the green and fell back into the trees, leaving James to finish 2up and Cheshire to have won by 18:0.
John Heggarty in his address to the Boys afterwards thanked them for playing sensibly on a short (5849 yards- par 69) but tight course and for all sticking to their task when the prospect of an 18:0 scoreline first became possible.
I have now checked with the Cheshire Golf archivist Jerry Dixon and it appears that we have never won a match 18:0 before, though there have been occasions when a whitewash has occurred in a singles only match. Most notably twice in the last 2 years at the 4 Counties Tournament. But we don’t know if the Ladies have ever recorded an 18:0 win.
Obviously I am very pleased with the Boys and delighted with their performance and their behaviour on a course that none of us had seen before. Derbyshire were very gracious hosts and although they started with 11 boys by the time their 12th player arrived at the golf club he was unable to change things for them.
A good day out and hopefully one to send the team on to the National Finals next week, where Matty and Maxi will be in the squad of 7, in good spirits.
Andrew Henshall~
Boys’ Team Manager
