COURSE CLOSED was the initial greeting on arrival at Royal St Georges Golf Club. The recent snow was still about but that wasn’t the problem it was a white dusting of frost. However with the temperature rising above freezing the frost disappeared and the course was playable for the normal start at 9.30am – thank goodness said some of the lads who had played little or no golf so far this year. All the lads were keen to get going and were very appreciative of the opportunity to play at the 2011 Open Championship venue. The course for the time of the year was in excellent condition with only the heavy snow in the bunkers that was going to give any grief with rulings!
Both Regions brought along strong sides to fight this annual battle that Region 4 host. Max Orrin had a tough match going out first against Adam Wells and with honours even that seemed a fair result. From then on, as the result sheet suggests, the results seem to alternate and it was down to Barnie Foreman to get the final point for Region 2.
The meal following the match was as usual excellent and this preceded the presentation of trophies to Region 2 in the main lounge. Paul Elvin (Captain Region 2) & Max Orrin (Captain Region 2) gave thanks to the Club and it staff for the opportunity to play at RSG. They also thanked the KCGU committee members who were there supporting this event. Finally, Chris Tappin (President KCGU) said a few kind words of thanks and mentioned that this was his first opportunity to speak at an event, as the County President, as all other competitions had been cancelled or postponed since he came to office!
I personally would like to thank the committee members for their attendance and support – Chris Tappin, Ian Burton (Past President), Dave Oldcorn, Mike Chaston & Dave Watkins (Region 2 Team Manager).
Paul Cannons (Region 4 Team Manager)
KENT U18 BOYS V SENE VALLEY
A delayed start for this annual friendly against Sene Valley GC was inevitable with a heavy frost the night before. A 10.30am start meant that the pins could be returned to the main greens.
This years Junior Captain – Jerome Titlow, led the Kent side against a weakened SV team as there was some confusion as to the number of players per side . A decision therefore was to change the format from scratch to handicap singles match play. Jerome played Charlie Wilson (previous Junior Captain) and they had a good battle with Charlie winning on the 17th. Sam Foster & Sene Valley Captain Martin Fairbrace also had a good game with honours even at the end. Debutants, Matt Cozens & Liam Sutton both had very good wins against their opponents. Liam had to give 8 shots and still had a convincing win against his opposite number. Lewis Kerr & Connor Fletcher were the only other Kent wins. Lewis’s match was rather ‘topsy turvy’ but he eventually came out on top and Connor’s match finished on the 5th hole when his partner had to retire with a back injury.
Some of Buz Morris’s team mates thought his early finish was due to the attraction of the bar and the Man Utd match! Whilst his Dad had a bit of a roasting, son Jake Spearpoint had a good win for Sene Valley against a good friend and rival, Freddie Price. It was good to monitor 11 Kent Juniors on the day.Grateful thanks go to Sene Valley for hosting the annual friendly fixture which gives the county juniors a chance to get together early for the 2010 season. Also thanks to Martin Fairbrace for organising this match and to the Kent Committee members, Mike Chaston & Dave Watkins for their attendance.
Paul Cannons (U18’s Team Manager)
A bright but very cold and windy day were the conditions for the annual friendly against R&C GC. With a few of the lads away on WWT training it was left to Alfie Plant to captain the U18’s against the usual very strong R&C side. Matt Haines was not available for R&C as he was at the time out in Europe winning the Spanish Amateur.
Alfie led the team by example beating a Kent regular Damien Turner. It was a good match with Alfie always being slightly ahead. Other wins on the day went to the younger lads in the team namely Connor Fletcher, Mark Collins & Jake Spearpoint.
The match was very closely fought with R&C being the eventual winners but after the first 8 matches had finished it was 4 wins each. Interestingly with 6 of the 10 matches going to the 18th not one of them was halved! The last match out saw a great tussle between two R&C members Jack Colegate and Sam Shearer and with Jack being 2up with 4 to play it looked good for the Kent team. However, Sam being Sam did not give up and with birdies on the last two holes he just managed to beat Jack by the one hole.
Many thanks to R&C for this very important fixture albeit a friendly and to Jason Morris for organising the event on behalf of R&C. Also thanks to Ray Saunders who suffered with me in the freezing temperatures. Fortunately this year we did not have to suffer the usual wintry precipitation.
