ENGLAND SEEK FOURTH WORLD JUNIOR VICTORY IN JAPAN
England is sending a strong team of outstanding youngsters
to defend the World Junior Team Championships in Japan next
month.
Having won the title three times in the past five years,
England will be looking to make a successful defence at the
Rosewood Golf Club in Hyogo on 17-20 June with the talented
quartet of Gary Boyd (Northamptonshire County), James Ruth
(Tavistock), James Smith (Sundridge Park), and Paul Waring
(Bromborough).
A year ago at the Kashikojima Country Club in Mie, England
finished on 646, two strokes ahead of Sweden and five in front
of New Zealand with the United States fourth on 656. And to
add to England's glory, Matthew Richardson won the individual
competition on 210, two clear of the field after the third
day's play had been abandoned through rain.
Waring will be making his second visit to Japan, having finished
fourth on 215 last year. The 18-year-old from Cheshire won
the English Boys Strokeplay Championship for the McGregor
Trophy in 2001 and was capped against Italy, Scotland and
the England Girls at under-16 level, remaining unbeaten throughout.
Last year he finished third in the McEvoy Trophy and was
also capped by England for the European Boys Team Championships
in Iceland and the Boys Home Internationals at Blairgowrie.
He was also a member of the GB&I team that won the Jacques
Leglise Trophy in Switzerland.
Boyd, 16, was capped last year at under 16 level against
Italy, Spain and Scotland and in the Boys Home Internationals.
At home, he won the Northants County Cup and Short Course
Championship, while this year he finished joint first in the
under-17 title in the Faldo Series at Royal West Norfolk as
well as fifth in the McEvoy Trophy.
Ruth, 18, is a former under-16 international, who won the
South West Boys Championship in 2002 while finishing third
in the McEvoy Trophy. This year, he won the Bernard Darwin
Trophy at Rye after recording a course record 66 in round
two.
Smith, 17, was capped for the first time in last year's Boys
Home Internationals at Blairgowrie and played a major role
in helping Kent to the Boys County Finals at St Annes Old
Links where they finished runners-up to Yorkshire.
Non-travelling reserve is Tommy Hunter (Ilford), winner of
the recent Peter McEvoy Trophy. The Team Captain will be Roy
Case, Chairman of the Boys' Selection Committee, with Dr Frank
Harkins as Team Manager/coach.
It will be England's tenth successive appearance in the World
Junior Team Championships. They were winners in 1998, '99
and 2002, runners-up once and third twice.
The Championship attracts a large entry of international
teams, including the likes of South Africa, New Zealand, Canada,
Korea, the US and Japan as well as other European nations.
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