ENGLAND SEEK HAT-TRICK IN COSTA BALLENA TOURNAMENT
 Six
members of the EGU’s A Squad for 2007 will comprise
the England team aiming to complete a third successive victory
in the annual Costa Ballena Quadrangular match in Spain at
the end of January.
Matthew Baldwin, Ben Evans, Gareth Evans, Luke Collins, Sam
Hutsby and Steven Uzzell will aim to come out on top again
against teams from Finland, Germany and Spain at Costa Ballena
Golf Club on 24th - 26th January.
Baldwin, 20, is a former English Under 16 Champion, Lancashire
Champion and Boy International. He was England Boy Captain
in 2004 and a member of England’s Elite Squad in 2005
and 2006. This year, he finished third in the Scottish Open
Stroke Play and the Danish Open Amateur. He is the only member
of the side to have previously played in the Costa Ballena
event, the winning team of 2005.
Collins, 21, has been a member of the A Squad for three successive
years. In 2006, he reached the quarter finals of the Spanish
and Italian Open Amateur Championships and finished tied fourth
in the Russian Open Amateur Championship in Moscow.
Ben Evans, 20, a former boy cap from Rye in Sussex, won the
Sunningdale Foursomes with Danielle Masters last March and
followed that with high finishes in the West of England Stroke
Play Championship and the St Andrews Links Trophy. He also
finished tied third in the Riverswood Junior Open in Holland
and in the South of England Stroke Play Championship.
Gareth Evans, 27, (pictured – photo courtesy of Tom
Ward) is another who has had a successful 2006. He followed
up his victory in the Yorkshire Championship by winning the
English County Champions Tournament at Woodhall Spa before
helping Yorkshire win the English County Champions title for
the second successive year.
Hutsby, 18, also had a happy 2006. He won the Spanish Amateur
Championship at Cadiz in February, finished runner-up in the
McEvoy Trophy, before representing England in the World Boys
Team Championships in Japan and the European Boys Team Championships
in Sweden. He was also England Captain for the Boys Home Internationals
in Scotland and was called up by GB&I for the Jacques
Leglise Trophy in the Czech Republic.
Hutsby, who is from Hampshire club Lee-on-Solent, also finished
fourth in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters before claiming
his other big triumph when he won the Duke of York Young Champions
tournament at Dundonald in Scotland.
Uzzell, 23, has been a member of Yorkshire’s English
County Championship-winning team for the past two years. The
left-hander was a member of the England B Squad - now the
Under 21 Squad - in 2004 and steps up to the A Squad for 2007.
England won the inaugural International Costa Ballena Golf
in 2001 and also came out on top in 2005 and 2006. As in previous
years, the competition will be played on a round robin basis,
each match comprising three foursomes and six singles.
England Team:
Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale)
Luke Collins (Mendip Spring)
Ben Evans (Rye)
Gareth Evans (Northcliffe)
Sam Hutsby (Lee-on-Solent)
Steven Uzzell (Hornsea)
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