YORKSHIRE DEFEND COUNTY TITLE AT PRINCE'S
Surrey and Yorkshire will renew their rivalry when the English
County Championship Finals are played at Prince’s Golf
Club, Sandwich, Kent, on 29th September - 1st October.
The two counties have monopolised the title for much of the
past decade, Surrey winning twice to Yorkshire’s six
victories, including last year at St Enodoc when Surrey finished
fourth.
The other participating counties are Gloucestershire, the
South West champions, and Midlands champions Warwickshire.
 Yorkshire
(2005 winning team pictured left - photo courtesy of Tom Ward)
include four of the side that proved victorious at St Enodoc
in Simon Bell, Gareth Evans, John Parry and Stephen Uzzell.
The rest of the Yorkshire team is David Appleyard, James Mason
and Nic McCarthy.
Bell, 22, is a former under 16 and boy international while
Parry, 19, made his full England debut against France this
year after winning caps at boys’ level. He has also
represented GB&I in the Jacques Leglise Trophy, is a past
winner of the McEvoy Trophy and the Danish Amateur.
Surrey also parade four survivors from last year in Seve
Benson, Simon Crockett, Ryan Harrison and county champion
Colin Roope. The other members from which the final team will
be selected are Andrew Cooley, Bill Fowles; English champion
Ross McGowan and fellow international Adam Gee.
Benson, 19, a former boy cap, won the Russian Amateur this
year and has just finished runner-up in the Italian Open Stroke
Play. Fowles, 16, made his England debut in the recent Boys
Home Internationals and reached the quarter finals of the
British Boys Championship.
McGowan has enjoyed a highly successful season, his English
title coming after five runner-up spots. He gained his first
full England cap in the recent Home Internationals and has
been selected for England’s Eisenhower Trophy team in
South Africa next month.
The Gloucestershire team includes Ed Butler, 26, a former
winner of the West of England Stroke Play and Match Play titles
and Chris Wood, 18, the current Gloucestershire champion.
This will be Gloucestershire’s second finals in a month
after they finished fourth in the Boys County Finals at Pannal.
Matt Cryer, the England international, will spearhead the
Warwickshire challenge. The 31 year old from Coventry was
capped for the first time in last year’s Home Internationals
and also played against France last spring in Bordeaux.
A former Midland and Czech Amateur champion, Cryer finished
runner-up to Benson in Russia and reached the semi-finals
of the English Amateur at Burnham and Berrow.
Warwickshire also include Robert Steele, an English Amateur
semi-finalist in 2002 and a former winner of the Midland Open
Amateur. He is a member of the England A squad, while Andrew
Sullivan is in the Under 21 squad.
Of the four counties involved at Prince’s, this will
be Yorkshire’s 36th final appearance, during which they
have won the title 18 times while Surrey will be making their
27th appearance in the finals, winning on 11 occasions.
Gloucestershire have lifted the title just twice - the last
in 1979 - from 20 final appearances while in their 19 finals
Warwickshire have won on five occasions, the most recent being
in 1990.
The Finals are contested on a round robin basis, each match
consisting of three foursomes and six singles. In the first
round of matches on 29th September, Warwickshire meet Yorkshire
and Gloucestershire will play Surrey.
Teams:
Gloucestershire
Ed Butler (Lansdown)
Nick Day (Henbury)
David Lake (Knowle)
Nick Scholey (Henbury)
Nigel Thompson (Brickhampton Court)
Shane Winstone (Knowle)
Chris Wood (Long Ashton)
Surrey
Seve Benson (Wentworth)
Andrew Cooley (Chobham)
Simon Crockett (Addington Palace)
Bill Fowles (Wentworth)
Adam Gee (Leatherhead)
Ryan Harrison (Wentworth)
Ross McGowan (Banstead Downs)
Colin Roope (Hindhead)
Warwickshire
Matt Cryer (Coventry)
David Hayes (Coventry)
Rory Kirwan (Kenilworth)
Paul Randle (Nuneaton)
Ben Stafford (Maxstoke Park)
Robert Steele (Kenilworth)
Andrew Sullivan (Purley Chase)
Yorkshire
David Appleyard (South Leeds)
Simon Bell (Baildon)
Gareth Evans (Northcliffe)
James Mason (Rotherham)
Nick McCarthy (Moortown)
John Parry (Harrogate)
Stephen Uzzell (Hornsea)
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