SURREY BOUNCE BACK TO WIN BOYS TITLE
 Surrey
wrested the English Boys County Championship off holders Lancashire
at Royal Cromer after a battle royal on the final afternoon
of the three day event.(Picture © Tom Ward)
Despite trailing 1-2 after the morning foursomes, the South
East Region champions bounced back in the singles to win 5½-3½.
The victory was sweet revenge for Surrey who were pipped
by Lancashire for the title on countback a year ago at Pannal.
“We knew all the time that we had the players to do
it,” said Surrey captain Terry Casey. “It’s
a perfect reversal for last year and we are delighted to win
the title.
“There was no question in my mind even when we were
behind that we could win four points from the singles. This
team are a great bunch and a number of them will go a long
way in the game.
“Lancashire are also a great bunch and we needed to
play well to win.”
Defeated captain Terry Horrocks, who was in charge when Lancashire
won last year, said: “Surrey were quick out of the blocks
and basically putted us off the park.
“We made a good fist of it but we allowed Surrey to
get too far ahead. But everything was played in a good spirit
and we shall be back.”
At lunch, it needed a supreme fight back by the Surrey boys
if they were not to be the bridesmaids once again and it was
their ’big guns’ who led the way.
The top single between boy caps Billy Fowles and Tommy Fleetwood
set the pattern but Fowles was in supreme form, reaching the
turn in four under par 32 to be just 2-up and although Fleetwood
cut the deficit, Fowles picked up more shots on the back nine
and was five under when the match finished on the 17th green
with the Surrey lad three ahead.
Gary King, another boy international, maintained the pressure
and was four under in beating Sean Nicholls 2 and 1, while
Stiggy Hodgson was also five under when his match with Adam
Andrews concluded in a 4 and 3 margin.
That left Surrey needing a win to be certain and it was achieved
by Ian Anson by two holes over Ciaran Doherty.
Although former British Boys champion Matthew Nixon secured
Lancashire’s consolation by beating Andrew Cooley 3
and 2 in the bottom single, it was too little, too late to
keep the title in the north.
Perhaps the fightback to match Surrey's was achieved by Lancashire's
Jack Brooks, who was 6-down to Lee Heaton at the turn, the
Surrey lad having gone out in 32.
But Brooks showed true grit by battling back to gain a half,
winning the 16th, 17th and 18th.
In the wooden spoon battle, Somerset bounced back from a
2-1 deficit in the foursomes to complete a 5-4 victory by
taking the bottom three singles.
Matters didn’t look good for the south west champions
when Max Brittan lost to Rudi Hercik and Jack Palmer was beaten
by Tom Warbrick. That put Worcestershire within a win of victory.
But the finishing line was always out of touching distance
with Somerset bossing the other matches.
Worcestershire had a semblance of a chance when Matthew Tweddell
got back to 1-down with a birdie-two on the 17th against David
Gregory. But again the win proved elusive as the 18th was
halved in fours to leave Gregory a one hole winner.
Somerset’s success was sealed by Matt Kippen, who was
three under when the match finished, and Sam Day in the bottom
two matches which meant they took four of the six singles.
It meant that Somerset finished third and Worcestershire
in last spot.
½-3½.
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