ENGLAND NAME TEAMS FOR INAUGURAL UNDER 16 NATIONS CUP
The English Golf Union has named two talented teams to compete
in the inaugural Nations Cup as part of the English Boys Under
16 Open Stroke Play Championship for the McGregor Trophy at
Radcliffe-on-Trent Golf Club, Nottinghamshire, on 29th June
- 1st July.
One three-man team will consist of Matthew Callanan (Woburn),
Andrew Johnston (North Middlesex) and Darren Renwick (Worthing),
and the other will comprise Ashley Chesters (Hawkstone Park),
Jack Hiluta (Chelmsford) and Adam Wills (Sandiway). The reserve
will be Richard Prophet (Dudley).
Only three of those selected, Callanan, Chesters and Renwick,
have been capped at under 16 level. Callanan reached the third
round of last year’s British Boys Championship, while
Chesters is the Shropshire under 16 champion and holds the
72-hole Sandy Lyle Trophy following his victory last year
with an amazing 19 under par.
Renwick led the McGregor Trophy for three rounds at Dudsbury
last year, eventually finishing fourth and was capped against
Scotland under 16s and the English Girls under 18 teams. He
also finished tied fifth in the Scottish Under 16 Championship
Johnston is a former Middlesex under 14 champion and runner-up
in the Middlesex Boys Championship. The 16 year old holds
the course record at Oundle and is the joint record holder
at North Middlesex, his home club, with 64.
Hiluta won the under 16 title in the recent Faldo Series
at Walton Heath, while Wills finished fourth in the Cheshire
Boys Championship in 2004 and runner-up this year.
Until this year, England faced Italy in a one-day international
as a curtain-raiser to the McGregor Trophy. But the championship
has become increasingly popular as an international event
so that a Nations Cup is being introduced this year.
Players from many European countries as well as the Home
Nations are regular participants in the under 16 championship
alongside English youngsters while there has been the occasional
entry from further afield.
Only on three occasions has the McGregor Trophy been won
by non-British players, Eduardo Molinari in 1996, his fellow
Italian Roberto Paolillo in 1997 and by Wouter de Vries from
The Netherlands in 2003.
The Nations Cup will be played over the first 36 holes of
the McGregor Trophy and will be decided by the aggregate of
the best two from three scores each round. In the event of
a tie the Nations Cup will be shared.
A new Nations Cup trophy has been presented by Mr Roy Case,
Chairman of the England Boys Selections Committee, and the
late Mrs Jean Case.
Under the conditions of entry each Union or Federation is
eligible to enter a maximum of two teams of up to three boys
each.
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