CHAMPIONS LINE UP IN WOODHALL SPA SHOWDOWN
The champions from 28 counties will battle it out over 36
holes of the testing Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa on Sunday
21st September to see who will be crowned the County Champion
of England.
The entry list contains two England caps, Graeme Clark (Doncaster),
who plays in next week's Home Internationals, and Matthew
Richardson (Pinner Hill), plus several boy caps.
Clark, the Yorkshire Champion, has been on the International
scene for the past three years, having made his debut against
Spain at El Prat in 2001. Since then the 27-year-old from
Doncaster has been a regular in the England side, and has
helped Yorkshire win three English County Championships in
the past four years.
Richardson, who will represent Middlesex, made his full England
debut against Spain at Lindrick in May having been a boy cap
for the past two years. The 18-year-old from Pinner Hill reached
the semi-finals of the British Boys last year and the quarterfinals
of the Spanish and Portuguese Amateurs earlier this year.
He was included in the Walker Cup squad but missed out on
selection and recently won the Ealing Scratch Open.
Mark Pilling, British Boys Champion in 2002, will represent
Cheshire, while Essex Champion Lloyd Kennedy, 18, capped for
the Boys Home Internationals, is one of the youngest in the
field.
Among the oldest are David Gibson, a stalwart of Leicestershire
golf for many years, and Lancashire Champion Bob Bardsley,
who enjoyed a successful run in the recent English Mid-Amateur
Championship at Royal Birkdale, finishing tied fourth.
There will be particular local interest in the Lincolnshire
Champion James Crampton. He is the Assistant Championship
Secretary of the EGU at Woodhall Spa and is enjoying a superb
season having won the county title with a closing round of
64 then reeling off two more 64s to win the recent Lincolnshire
Open on 14 under par against the Professionals.
Dorset will be represented by Tom Peacock, a member of the
side that reached the English County Finals last year in Jersey
and who finished tied fourth in the Lytham Trophy, while Robert
Steele, a semi-finalist in last year's English Amateur at
Walton Heath, is the Warwickshire champion.
Cumbria, who have already secured the English Amateur Championship
through Gary Lockerbie and the Mid-Amateur through John Longcake,
will look to William Bowe to make it a hat trick for the northern
county.
Besides carrying off the title, the overall Champion will
also gain automatic entry into next year's Brabazon Trophy.
The full list of entries:
Lee Yearn (Cambridgeshire), Mark Pilling (Cheshire), Lloyd
Kennedy (Essex), David Gibson (Leicestershire & Rutland),
Mark Betteridge (Nottinghamshire), Tom Peacock (Dorset), John
Kendall (Staffordshire), Matthew Ford (Kent), Davy Jones (Isle
of Man), Adam Norman (Worcestershire), Robert Steele (Warwickshire),
Chris McDonnell (Northumberland), Barry Ruddick (Shropshire
& Herefordshire), Austin Brydon (Norfolk), Ben Connelly
(Hertfordshire), Matthew Richardson (Middlesex), Craig Townsend
(Devon), William Bowe (Cumbria), Mike Unwin (Gloucestershire),
Eddie Vernon (Derbyshire), Bob Bardsley (Lancashire), Graham
Benson (Bedfordshire), Glen Keates (Northamptonshire), Jack
Budgen (Sussex), Lee Gauthier (Berks, Bucks & Oxon), Richard
Aisbitt (Durham), James Crampton (Lincolnshire), and Graeme
Clark (Yorkshire).
|