SOUTHERN VALLEY DEFEND CHAMPION CLUB TITLE
The three-man team from Southern Valley Golf Club will attempt
to join at elite group when they defend the English Champion
Club title at Sandwell Park Golf Club, West Bromwich on 3rd
- 4th September.
A year ago, the boys from the south bank of the Thames near
Gravesend in Kent became champions by a stroke at King’s
Lynn and if they can hold on to their crown they will become
only the third club to do so.
Ealing from Middlesex and Yorkshire’s Sand Moor are
the only clubs to have won the competition twice in a row
but Southern Valley can join them if they come out on top
at Sandwell Park.
In fact, this will be Southern Valley’s third successive
final appearance as they were pipped for the title on countback
at Northants County in 2002.
They will field virtually the same line-up as last year with
brothers Ed and Will Richardson being joined this time by
Sean Pilbeam.
John O’Gaunt from Bedfordshire, runners-up a year ago,
will be bidding again through England cap John Kemp, county
champion Mark Wharton and Neil Willson.
Several former winners are also making return visits including
Brokenhurst Manor from Hampshire, IoW, victors in 1988, Bristol
& Clifton from Gloucestershire, champions in 1992, and
Worksop from Nottinghamshire winners in 1993.
The title hasn’t been won by a Staffordshire club since
Trentham triumphed in 1991, but this year’s representatives
come from the host club who will field an experienced team
of Paul Griffiths, Dean Porter and Tony Cheese.
Knowledge of their home course could prove vital, while Griffiths
and Porter both made the cut in the recent English Mid-Amateur
Championship.
William Bowe, a former under 16 cap and a member of the team
that won the Nations Cup in the Czech Amateur Championship
two weeks ago, is in the Workington team along with former
England A Squad member Simon Young, while Martin and Jonathan
Young will represent Brokenhurst Manor along with former English
champion Kevin Weeks.
England international James Ruth from Devon is part of the
Tavistock team, while boy cap Oliver Fisher, the McGregor
and Lagonda Trophy winner, turns out for West Essex and Roger
Smithies, third in the recent Mid-Amateur, for Manchester.
Completing an impressive line-up will be Steven Crosby, joint
winner of the Mid-Amateur last year, for Gorleston from Suffolk,
and Richard Latham, Steven Cox and Rob Harris for a strong
Woodhall Spa outfit representing Lincolnshire.
The Champion Club event is contested by the champions of
all 34 English counties and is decided on aggregate over 36
holes of stroke play, the best two scores from the three team
members in each round to count.
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