ENGLAND SENDING STRONG SQUAD TO DEFEND EUROPEAN TITLE
The English Golf Union is sending 15 players to Belgium to
contest the European International Amateur Championship at
Rinkven Golf Club near Antwerp on 17th - 20th August.
The party contains four members of the Elite Squad and six
players who will represent England in next month‘s Home
Internationals at Royal St George’s.
The full group is: Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale), Gary
Boyd (Northants County), Lloyd Campbell (Rochester & Cobham),
Neil Chaudhuri (The Leicestershire), Matthew Cryer (Coventry),
Joe Ferguson (Kidderminster), Adam Gee (Leatherhead), David
Horsey (Styal), Chris McDonnell (Stocksfield), Ross McGowan
(Banstead Downs), Jamie Moul (Stoke by Nayland), Ben Parker
(Gut Waldhof), Edward Richardson (Southern Valley), James
Ruth (Tavistock) and Paul Waring (Bromborough).
Cryer, Gee, Moul, Richardson, Ruth and Waring are in the
team that will defend the Home Internationals title next month.
Baldwin, 19, is a former under 16 champion and England boy
captain, who was included in the Elite Squad for this year.
Boyd, 18, is another former under 16 cap and boy international,
while Campbell, 20, is at college in the United States and
was a member of the England team that won the Nations Cup
in this year’s Mexican Amateur.
Chaudhuri, 20, who represented Leicestershire in last year’s
County Finals, finished runner-up in this year’s Spanish
Amateur and tied for first place in the Peruvian Amateur Championship.
Cryer, 30, a frequent winner in midland events and is the
current Midland Amateur Champion. Last year he won the Czech
Republic Amateur Championship and helped England win the Nations
Cup in the event.
Ferguson, 22, is a former Shropshire Boys Champion and Worcestershire
No.1, who finished sixth in this year’s West of England
Strokeplay and runner-up in the Berkshire Trophy.
Gee, 24, made his full England debut against France last
year following a semi-final place in the Portuguese Amateur.
Helped England win the Home Internationals at Prestwick and
Surrey win the County Championship. Last winter he was a quarter-finalist
in the South African Amateur, finished runner-up in the South
African Strokeplay Championship and was in the side that played
Spain in Madrid in April. He also finished runner-up in the
Berkhamsted Trophy and fifth in the Lytham Trophy before winning
the Berkshire Trophy.
Last year, Horsey, 20, finished runner-up in the English
Amateur Championship and he has continued his good form in
2005, winning the Cheshire Championship. A member of the England
A training squad, Horsey was a member of the victorious England
team in the Costa Ballena Quadrangular tournament in Spain,
winning all his matches.
McDonnell, 23, from Northumberland, finished third in this
year’s West of England Strokeplay and will be making
his first overseas assignment for the EGU. Moul, 20, the current
Suffolk Champion, is another player who was capped for the
first time against France last year, competed against Spain
in April and was a member of the triumphant European Men‘s
Team Championship squad at Hillside last month. He has enjoyed
a successful year, finishing fourth in the West of England
Strokeplay, tied sixth in the Brabazon Trophy and runner-up
in the St Andrews Links Trophy.
Parker, 18, who is based in Germany, has been a member of
the winning England sides for the past two years in the Boys
Home Internationals and of the victorious team in last year‘s
European Boys Team Championships.
Richardson, just called up by England for next month’s
Home Internationals at the age of 37, has been a power on
the Kent county scene for the past five years, topping the
Order of Merit in 2003 and 2004. He helped Southern Valley
win the EGU Champion Club title in 2003 and this year he has
won the West of England Strokeplay Championship.
A former boy cap, Ruth, 20, made his full debut against France
last year and played against Spain in April. In 2004 he won
the Berkhamsted Trophy, helped his club, Tavistock, win the
English Champion Club title, then played for Devon in the
County Finals at Worksop. This year the Devonian finished
third in the Berkshire Trophy and recently won the St Mellion
International.
Waring, 20, from Cheshire, is the newly crowned English Amateur
Champion following last month’s victory over his home
course at Bromborough after almost a year out with injury.
A former victorious England Boy captain, he also played in
the World Boys Team Championships in Japan as well as the
European Boys Team Championships, and for GB&I in the
Jacques Leglise Trophy.
England currently holds the European Amateur title following
Matthew Richardson’s victory in Sweden last August,
ahead of Walker Cup team-mate Gary Lockerbie. That win ended
a 13 year wait, the previous English winner being Jim Payne
in 1991.
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