CHAMPION TRIO NAMED IN ENGLANDS EUROPEAN BOYS SQUAD
Matthew Baldwin, Oliver Fisher and John Parry, all of whom
have completed significant victories in recent weeks, have
been selected in the England team for the European Boys Team
Championships in Finland on 6th - 10th July.
The other members of the six-strong line-up at Kymen Golf
Club in Kotka are Lawrence Allen, Ben Evans and Ben Parker.
The non-travelling reserve is Grant Slater.
Baldwin, the 18 year old from Hesketh, is the newly crowned
Lancashire champion following his triumph at Pleasington.
A former under 16 cap, he became a boy international two years
ago, when he also landed the Lancashire Boys title.
His selection for the Boys Home Internationals that year
followed his first national title when he won the English
Under 16 Championship for the McGregor Trophy at Sheringham.
Essex 15 year old Fisher, who finished runner-up in the McGregor
Trophy last year at Rotherham, became the youngest winner
of the Lagonda Trophy at Gog Magog, Cambridge, last week,
finishing with rounds of 66 and 65.
Capped at under 16 level last summer, the powerful six-footer
from the West Essex club also won the Douglas Johns Trophy
and the Essex Boys Championship and has continued the good
work this year, last week’s victory following his second
place to Parry in the Peter McEvoy Trophy in April.
Yorkshire’s Parry was the impressive winner of the
McEvoy Trophy with four rounds of 68 at Copt Heath. The 17
year old from Harrogate is a former under-18 champion in the
North of England Youths Championship and helped Yorkshire
to victory in the Boys County Finals at St Anne’s Old
Links in 2002 and Copthorne in 2003. Last week he won the
Yorkshire Boys with a 36 hole score of 139 at Sand Moor.
He has been a member of the England School of Excellence
for the past two years and, like Baldwin and Fisher, played
in the unofficial international against Sweden Boys at Hunstanton
earlier this year.
Allen, who celebrates his 18th birthday tomorrow (2nd June),
is another who has been capped at under-16 level. A member
of the School of Excellence for the past three years, the
Hertfordshire lad reached the semi-finals of the English Amateur
Championship at Alwoodley last summer.
Evans, 17 from Sussex, is also a former under 16 cap and
finished runner-up in the English Under 14 Championship for
the Reid Trophy in 2000. He played in last year’s Boys
Home Internationals in Wales and has also been a member of
the School of Excellence for the past three years.
Parker, who is based in Germany where his father is a club
professional, was capped at under 16 level in 2002 and 2003
and last year won the European Young Masters tournament in
Munich.
Third in the McGregor Trophy behind Fisher at Rotherham last
summer, the Lancastrian-born 16 year old is another member
of the School of Excellence.
England will be seeking their eighth victory in the European
Boys Team Championships since 1980. Their last success was
five years ago at Uppsala in Sweden, while last year in the
Czech Republic the team finished fifth behind champions Italy.
The complete England team is:
Lawrence Allen (Brookmans Park), Matthew Baldwin (Hesketh),
Ben Evans (Rye), Oliver Fisher (West Essex), Ben Parker (Gut
Waldhof), and John Parry (Harrogate). Non-travelling reserve
is Grant Slater (Carlyon Bay).
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