ENGLAND 5TH IN EUROPEAN BOYS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
England finished fifth in the European Boys Team Championships
held at the Astoria Golf Club near Karlovy Vary in the Czech
Republic last week.
The strokeplay qualification was won by Italy with an exceptional
17 under par total with Scotland second after a second round
aggregate of 15 under par left them 6 under in total. It was
very tight for the last two places in the top flight which
eventually went to Austria and England although Belgium, Ireland,
Switzerland and Germany were all within 3 strokes of the final
qualifying total which was 3 over par.
Because of the number of teams competing ( 24) the matchplay
rounds were best of 5 with all team members playing a format
of one foursome and 4 singles. England met Italy in the quarter
finals and despite good wins for the foursome partnership
of James Ruth (Tavistock) and James Smith (Sunridge Park)
and Daniel Dennison (Howley Hall) in the final singles, three
matches went up the final hole. Paul Waring (Bromborough)
and Martyn Hamer (Worsley Park Marriott) both manged to win
the final hole with birdies to force extra holes but Tommy
Hunter (Ilford) lost the last to a birdie to lose one down.
Unfortunately two wins and two halved matches does not constitute
a win and both matches were lost in extra holes, Italy thus
winning 3-2. The other quarter finals produced surprises with
a very young Austrian team beating Scotland and the highly
fancied Spanish and Swedish teams losing to the Netherlands
and France respectively.
In the battle for 5th place England beat Spain 4.5- 0.5 and
Sweden 3-2 with very good performances from all the team.
The foursomes pair being undefeated and Daniel Dennison and
Tommy Hunter winning both of their singles.
Italy and Austria competed for the final where Italy ran
out fairly easy winners 4-1, however Austria who fielded a
12, 14 and two 16 year olds could take great credit from their
performance during the week and their qualification for next
years World Junior Championship.
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