Boys Team Retain The Severnside Trophy At St Mellons Gc 20Th August 2021

Boys Team Retain the Severnside Trophy at St Mellons GC - 20th August 2021

The Severnside Winners at St Mellons GC on Friday 20th August 2021. (l-r) Roger Martin (Team Manager), Dan Wakeman, Tom Lennon, Louie Stott, Ian Rone (WCG Ltd President), Phil Krone (Captain, with Trophy), Steve Anderton (St Mellons GC Captain), Cassius Blake, Tom Blizzard, James Ilsley & James Humphries.

Click here for full score board.

49th SEVERNSIDE FOUR COUNTIES BOYS TOURNAMENT 2021

The Worcestershire U18 boys team arrived at St Mellons Golf Club, Gwent in an attempt to retain the prestigious Severnside Four Counties Trophy last played in 2019. The tournament is played over 2 days and involves playing 7 singles matches against each of the other counties that include Gwent, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire.

With a young squad that will all be available next year, the team made a nervous start on Thursday afternoon and were narrowly beaten by Gwent 4-3 in a match in which we were in the ascendancy for long periods but just fell short despite good wins from James Humphries (Redditch) and Tom Lennon (Halesowen).

Despite the disappointment of the previous day, the boys came out with a determined attitude on Friday morning and played exceptionally well to defeat a strong Glamorgan team. A number of the matches were very tight going into the back 9 but several of our team impressively managed to turn their games around to eventually run out winners by 5 matches to 2. There were excellent wins for Philip Krone (Kings Norton), Louie Stott (Bewdley Pines), Tom Blizzard (Bromsgrove) but the most impressive come-back was from James Humphries who was 4 down after 6 holes and then won 7 holes in a row including 5 birdies in 7 holes to win 3 &2.

At this stage of the competition, and with one match each remaining, all 4 counties had the opportunity to win the competition so the last matches had great significance. Our task was to beat our afternoon opponents Gloucestershire and hope that would be good enough. We decided to change our order slightly for this match but the early signs were not encouraging as our opponents started very strongly and were ahead in a majority of the matches. Nevertheless, the team continued to display great determination and gradually began to turn their matches around. With the slight change in order we hoped that we would come strong on the back 9 and this proved to be the case. Louie Stott was the first player to achieve a win, 3&2, to begin the fightback. James Humphries and our captain Phil Krone, who were both 3 down at one stage, played the final holes supremely well and managed to finish all square having been behind for long periods. With 2 matches remaining on the course we were still in a losing position. The final points came in the last 2 matches with James Ilsley (Stourbridge) winning 2&1, and the impressive Cassius Blake (Kings Norton) who only came into the team at late notice, completing the victory with a 1 up victory on the 18th. Fantastic!

In addition to the players mentioned above, Dan Wakeman (Hagley), Tom Blizzard and Tom Lennon played outstandingly well across the 2 days and made valuable contributions to both the team score and the team ethos, both on and off the course. So with those two points in the final 2 matches, Worcestershire impressively managed to retain the Severnside Trophy.

I'd like to thank everyone involved with the organisation of the event. The hospitality at St. Mellons Golf Club was excellent and my thanks go to the catering staff and the grounds team for producing the course in excellent condition. As always my thanks go to Stuart and Debbie Pritchard for their tireless efforts and to County President Ian Rone for attending the event and offering his support, which was much appreciated. Perhaps a special thanks should also go to Phil Krone who volunteered for the responsibilities of captain at very short notice and did an excellent job of presenting the medals to the team and making a confident speech at the formal presentation.

We all look forward to next years 50th anniversary of the event which will be held at Whitchurch Golf Club, Cardiff.

Team Manager Roger Martin