U16’s V Beds & Herts
The BB&O U16 match against Herts and Beds was delayed by 30 mins, whilst thunder, heavy rain and angry clouds passed over Leighton Buzzard Golf club. The weather cleared, the sun came out and off we went. Herts and Beds were clearly determined to break our unbeaten run and came out fighting from the off.
Melan lead the way , played steady golf, maintained his superb rhythm and to be honest, never looked like losing his matches. So the first 2 points in the bag.
In the second match, Taylor was pegged back by his Herts opponent initially, but was always in control of the Beds match. As the sun disappeared and heavy rain returned, Taylor maintained his composure and pulled ahead of Ben Pierloni the very good Herts player and U16 England international. Taylor sank a 12ft putt for an eagle 3 on the part 5 , 12th. Taylor never then looked back and went on to secure his 2 points.
Archie Smith who went out third, was having a difficult day on the greens , with a few three putts and balls agonisingly not dropping. He was 4 down to both opponents on the 13th tee, feeling frustrated, but brushed himself down, refocused, got up and down for a par 3 and then proceeded to mount a superb fighback to secure a valuable half point against Beds. So valuable and so impressive.
When the rain did come back it was horrendously heavy for 40 mins and turned very cold. Our boys were undeterred.
James Gregory started slowly, but found his rhythm mid round and then put on a fantastic chipping display to change the momentum of both his matches and claw back early lost holes. He got up and down from a bunker 30 yards from the pin on 8, a delicate up and down from through the green on 14 and a brilliant up and down from 25yds to 2 inches on the last, that secured his win against Herts 1up to add to his victory against Beds.
Both Struan and Oscar had a challenging day and despite fighting hard to the end lost both their matches. Both have played a very important part in our previous wins.
Will Tate was involved in a very close battle with both opponents early on . On the difficult dog leg 6th he nailed a drive up the right and followed this was a beautiful approach shot. His confidence grew and he then built a strong lead against both opponents, from which they would not recover. 2 more points to BB&O.
Carl Banner also had a slow start and was down early on, but fought back really well. He found his golfing boots and won the Beds match easily. On the tee on the 18th he was all square against Herts. The tee shot is treacherous and one of the tightest I have seen. Carl found the fairway and just missed the green with his approach, but chipped to 6ft and sank the putt, to secure a valuable half point against Herts which took us across the winning line.
Final match score was BB&O 4.5 Herts 3.5 and BB&O 5.5 Beds 2.5.
Both matches were very close and at one point could have gone either way. The boys stayed calm and stuck to their task. Team spirit and determination to win was brilliant. Like always none gave up, there were many fight backs and the boys deserved their well earned victory on the day and won the overall region with an unbeaten record.
A huge well done to all those players who have contributed to this success throughout the season and of course to the coaches for all their guidance and support. We have now qualified for the South East Regional final on Oct 1st at Essenden and will be determined to bring home the silverware.
For the full Hertfordshire result click here
For the full Bedfordshire result click here
