FOUR NEW CAPS IN ENGLAND TEAM TO FACE SPAIN
Martin Sell, the Wiltshire 24 year old, who has come close
to winning two international championships in the past year,
is one of four new caps in the England team to face Spain
at Lindrick Golf Club, Yorkshire, next month.
Making their debuts alongside Sell on 10-11 May will be teenagers
Matthew Richardson, the reigning World Junior champion, Daniel
Wardrop and Justin Walters, the South African-born 22 year
old currently at university in the United States.
The rest of the team is Graeme Clark, Richard Finch, Jonathan
Lupton, Richard Walker and Gary Wolstenholme.
Walters, who has an English mother and possesses a British
passport, is attending North Carolina State in Raleigh and
is currently ranked seventh in US college golf with four victories
under his belt.
He approached the EGU last year seeking information on how
he could get into English international golf and after a detailed
investigation it was found that Walters is eligible to represent
England.
He played for GB&I against the United States in the Palmer
Cup in Doonbeg, Ireland last year; winning two of his four
matches and with his American college background will be a
vital acquisition to the England ranks.
Since he reached the final of the Amateur Championship last
June, only to lose to Spain’s Alejandro Larrazabal,
Sell has been producing quality golf. He represented England
in the Chiberta Grand Prix in August and was included in the
EGU Potential A Squad.
This year he fought his way to the semi-finals of the Spanish
Amateur only to go out to another Spaniard, and then represented
England in the Copa Monterrey in Mexico. In recent weeks he
has won the Hampshire Hog and finished second to Zane Scotland
in the Selborne Salver.
Richardson, at 18 is the baby of the team but has built a
wealth of experience. Winner of the McEvoy Trophy last year,
he went on to win the individual title at the World Boys Team
Championships in Japan and was a semi-finalist in the British
Boys at Carnoustie.
Towards the end of 2002, the Middlesex lad finished second
in the Daily Telegraph Junior Championships in Sun City and
was fourth in the Orange Bowl in Florida. He was added to
the Walker Cup squad earlier this year, and also reached the
quarter finals of the Spanish and Portuguese Amateur Championships.
Wardrop, 19, has represented England at boys and youths level
over the past four years and now steps up to senior status
after being named as reserve for last year’s Home Internationals
at Royal St David’s.
He is a past winner of the Cheshire Boys Championships and
the Greek Amateur and has represented England in the Spanish
and Portuguese Amateur Championships as well as the European
Amateur Championship.
The other five members of the team possess plenty of international
experience. Clark, 26, from Doncaster, made his England debut
in the 2001 match with Spain at El Prat and now has 22 appearances
to his credit, while his Yorkshire team-mate Finch is the
reigning English champion with 16 England matches.
Lupton, 24, another Yorkshireman, made his debut when England
regained the Home Internationals at Woodhall Spa in 2001.
A former winner of the Hampshire Hog and Welsh Stroke Play
Championship, Lupton won the team event with Wolstenholme
in the Lake Macquarie Tournament in Australia in January.
Walker, 31, recent winner of the Portuguese Amateur and a
member of the victorious European Nations Cup team in the
Sherry Cup at Sotogrande, has been a regular member of the
England set-up for the past three years. A former Brabazon
Trophy winner, he finished equal 12th in last week’s
Portuguese Open on the European Tour after winning the Portuguese
Amateur Championship and will defend the German Amateur title
this week.
The Spanish match should prove a milestone for 42-year-old
Wolstenholme, who will become the most capped England player
of all time when he tees off in his second match of the weekend.
He is currently on 152 appearances, one behind Peter McEvoy.
It will also be his eighth international with Spain, his first
coming in 1989.
England considered several other players for selection but
Yasin Ali, David Skinns and Oliver Wilson ruled themselves
out because of their US commitments, while Zane Scotland is
another absentee as he is playing in the conflicting Benson
& Hedges International at The Belfry.
The non-travelling reserves are Ross Fisher (Wentworth) and
Lee Corfield (Burnham & Berrow), while Cecil Bloice will
captain the side for the first time in England as well as
in his home county of Yorkshire.
England has never lost an international against Spain but
the forthcoming encounter promises to be close as Spain are
fielding an experienced line-up including Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano,
the Spanish Open Amateur champion, and runner-up, Alvaro Quiros.
Their team also contains Pablo Martin, the 2001 British Boys
champion, five of the side that pipped England in the Costa
Ballena quadrangular tournament in February, and their entire
Sherry Cup squad that finished runners-up to England earlier
this month.
Team:
Graeme Clark (Doncaster)
Richard Finch (Hull)
Jonathan Lupton (Middlesbrough)
Matthew Richardson (Pinner Hill)
Martin Sell (Wrag Barn)
Richard Walker (Frodsham)
Justin Walters (North Carolina State)
Daniel Wardrop (Didsbury)
Gary Wolstenholme (Kilworth Springs)
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