SMALE SET FOR ENGLAND DEBUT IN SENIORS HOME INTERNATIONALS
Sam Smale (Royal St George’s) is the only new cap in
the England team for the Seniors Home Internationals being
played at Caldy, Cheshire on 2nd - 4th October.
 The
rest of the side is that which finished third in the recent
European Seniors Championships in Slovenia namely, Douglas
Arnold (Copthorne), David Lane (Goring and Streatley), Andrew
Morrison (Appleby), Chris Reynolds (Littlestone), Roy Smethurst
(Crewe) and Alan Squires (Oldham).
When selected the team filled the first seven places on the
EGU’s Seniors Order of Merit, won this year by Lane.
Smale, 61, is a member of the highly successful Kent Squad
that has dominated seniors golf in the south east in recent
years and which has reached all three Seniors County Finals
since its inception in 2005. A former Club Champion at Eastbourne
and Northwood, Smale joined Royal St George’s over a
decade ago and in the 2006 Brabazon Bowl carded 65, the lowest
ever round by a member.
Smale is enjoying a successful season. He finished seventh
in the English Seniors Championship at Enville and made the
cut in the Seniors Open Amateur Championship in Nairn. He
is also a long-standing competitor in the Grafton Morrish
- he was in the winning team in 1976 - and the Halford Hewitt
and he is the keeper of the Hewitt records.
Arnold, who has won three English Seniors Championships,
has been an England regular since the Seniors Home Internationals
started five years ago as well as the European Seniors Team
Championships. He has also won several Sussex Seniors titles
Lane is another multiple seniors champion with one British,
two Scottish and three English titles, the most recent in
June at Enville, ten years after his first. He has also played
for England in every Seniors Home Internationals and European
Seniors Team Championships.
Morrison earned a recall to the England team for the European
Seniors this year, having played in the 2003 Seniors Home
Internationals at Seaton Carew. He finished equal fifth in
this year’s English Seniors and is a former Northern
Counties Seniors Champion.
Reynolds (Pictured - photo courtesy of Tom Ward), another
member of the successful Kent Seniors side, made his England
debut in last year’s Seniors Home Internationals in
Dunbar. He also finished runner-up to Lane in this year’s
English Seniors at Enville and fourth in the British Seniors
Open Championship at Nairn.
Smethurst is another long-serving member of the England team
at home and abroad. The Crewe man has an impressive record
in seniors golf with one European, one British and four English
titles not to mention a host of England caps and other domestic
honours.
Squires, from Lancashire, has played in the past three Seniors
Home Internationals as well as the past two European Seniors
Team Championships, having finished in the top three in the
past three English Seniors Championships.
England have been Home International champions on three occasions,
in the inaugural year 2001, 2002 and 2004.
At Caldy, when Ireland will be defending the title, the sides
will play each other on a round robin basis, each match consisting
of three foursomes and six singles, all over 18 holes.
The full England team is: Douglas Arnold (Copthorne), David
Lane (Goring and Streatley), Andrew Morrison (Appleby), Chris
Reynolds (Littlestone), Sam Smale (Royal St George’s),
Roy Smethurst (Crewe) and Alan Squires (Oldham).
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