Four Counties Junior Championship

West Cornwall GC 08 -10 April 2014

General

The event comprised of a morning Stroke Play round for both the Individual and Team Stroke Play Championship, which is followed by Three Inter-County matches to determine the Inter County Match Play Championship.

Day 1 - Stroke Play

For the Individual results click here.
For Team Results click here.

Matchplay:

Dorset v Somerset -Somerset Won 4-3

Cornwall v Devon - Devon Won 4-3

Day 2

AM:

Cornwall v Somerset - Somerset Won 4-3

Devon v Dorset - Devon Won 5-2

PM:

Devon v Somerset - Devon Won 5-2

Dorset v Cornwall - Dorset Won 4-3

Managers Report

A long journey west brought us to West Cornwall Golf Club, the venue for the 2014 Four Counties Championships. As holders of the team match play championship, we were determined to do all we could to return the shield back to Dorset. The course is a beautiful example of a links course, set on the mouth of the River Hayle near St. Ives, and overlooking Carbis Bay.
An afternoon practice round quickly demonstrated that this was a course that required good knowledge of the layout to score well. The average wind gave a taste of what difficulty the course could present if the weather wished.
As it happened, the first morning was completely gust-free. The Stroke play Championship commenced with squad members firing off the first tee in handicap order. Despite the kind weather conditions, scoring proved hard for the first couple of Dorset players who delivered scores below their expectation.  Jack Baker delivered a fine 72 but remaking scores were average until young Adam Harris delivered an excellent 73, giving a welcome cut to his handicap.  Taking Dorset's six best gross scores gave us a team score of 447 and third place overall. Later that evening, the overall individual title would eventually go to Harry Hall (Cornwall) after finally beating Tom Sloman (Somerset) on the 9th playoff hole.
After a quick lunch, the match play competition commenced with Dorset first competing with Somerset. This proved to be a very tight match, but despite Tom Atkins' fine win over Tom Sloman, Dorset were beaten by the narrowest of margins.
A good night's sleep, and we were again granted a beautiful morning with no wind, although a little cooler than the day before. Dorset's morning competition was with Devon, renowned for having a strong team. This match was very closely fought. Billy-Joe Bugden showed his class by comprehensively beating his opponent with a 6 under par over the 14 holes played, but the majority of other matches went to the wire but fell in Devon's favour. A good win from the Plumb/Harris pairing was very welcome, but not enough.
And so to the final match against Cornwall was left, with both teams adamant to not be granted the wooden spoon. Again, the matches were very close, although our Foursomes pairing were set against two of Cornwall's lower handicaps who delivered an early point for the competition. The remaining matches continued to be close, but as the holes ran out, they fell in Dorset's favour, and giving us a well deserved win.
A third place for Dorset in the match play competition did not fully reveal the closeness of the matches, but that is how things finished. Devon sealed the match play shield overall.
The Dorset team would like to thank West Cornwall Golf Club for hosting an excellent competition, and for looking after everyone so well. The officials of Cornwall County Golf Union executed a well run and enjoyable event without any hitches. Also thanks goes to Rob Jones For his help during the competition, President Bill Kennedy for his attendance and Dan Frost for his time preparing the boys for competition.

Ian Davis
U18's Team Manager

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