Derbyshire V Worcestershire U18 League

Derbyshire v Worcestershire U18 League

With the sun yet to rise and the dawn chorus of songbird ringing in our ears, the team met at Bromsgrove GC to begin our trek to Chapel en le Frith GC North Derbyshire for our league match with Derbyshire. With several players unavailable due to holidays and a last minute withdrawal due to illness we set off a man down which made the task of achieving a result very challenging.

With the team starting the day with a 2 point deficit the task was made even harder after achieving 1.5.points out a possible 4 in the morning foursomes matches with a win by Louie Stott and Dan Wakeman and a hard fought A/S by Phil Krone and Cassius Blake. So going into the afternoon singles we needed 7 points of the 9 available to achieve victory - a mammoth task. Nevertheless, the spirit and desire of the team was outstanding and at one stage it looked like we might achieve the unexpected as we were up in 5 matches and A/S in two midway through the afternoon. However, despite taking 6 of the games to the 18th the Derbyshire boys fought back to dash our hopes of victory. Wins for Dan Wakeman, who had a 100% record on the day, Mark Hewlett, Philip Krone and Cassius Blake kept our hope alive but valiant efforts from Tom Lennon, George Stephens and Tom Blizzard who all took their matches to the last was not enough to achieve an unexpected victory.

After an excellent effort the final score was Derbyshire 9 Worcestershire 6. A special thanks to George Stephens and Harry Evans who made their U18's debut and came into the team at late notice and performed admirably.

Thanks go to : Chapel en le Frith Golf Club for their excellent preparation of the course and hospitality throughout the day. To all the parents / guardians who rose to the unenviable challenge of getting the players to Bromsgrove GC for a 5.45 am meet and to Bromsgrove GC for arranging parking facilities for the day. As always thanks to officials Mark Hewlett Snr and Kevin Fee for their invaluable support.

Final Score: Derbyshire 9 Worcestershire 6

Roger Martin