The County Jnr team Championship was played on Good Friday over the Cotswold Hills links. There was a record entry of 80 boys & 10 girls representing 18 clubs for the tournament which is run jointly by the Gloucestershire Golf Union & the Gloucestershire Ladies Golf Association. The event is a 36 hole stableford points competition with 3 players (boys or girls) making up a team. One score from each round can be dropped with the best two scores in each round making up the aggregate score.
The course itself was in magnificent condition for this prestigious event, the winners of which go on to represent Gloucestershire at the English National Jnr team Championships at Burghley Park in Lincolnshire on 8th-9th August.
The current holders of the English trophy are last years winners Knowle in Bristol.
The weather was tricky with much heavy rain, a good breeze & even a little sunshine!!
The youngsters took it in their stride showing the depth of talent in the county at present.
Knowle made a good defence of their title & finished 3rd with 154 points. Brickhampton, (who have won the event previously) put together a great series of scores to attain 158 points, but no-one could match Cotswold Hills with their secret weapon, Owen Smith playing off a 20 handicap. He returned two magnificent scores of 46 points in the morning & 47 points in the afternoon. He was ably backed up by the other members of his team, Andrew Scarrott & Victoria Wakeley-Jones who both contributed to the team score of 163. Owen Smith won the prize for the AM round with his 46 points & in the interest of fairness young Ben Neville from Brickhampton Court won a ceded prize for the afternoon round with a great score of 45 points. So its off to the finals in August for our 3 winners, lets hope they can bring the English finals trophy (which was on display in the clubhouse) back to Gloucestershire.
Other very good scores during the day were recorded by Tom Hamilton (Lansdown) 44 points, Jack Walker (Minchinhampton) 43 points, Simon Weekes (Thornbury), Will Smith (Kendleshire) & Jamie Graham (South Cerney) 42 points, Sam Morgan (Bristol & Clifton), Courtney Stone (Knowle) Will Mullins (Knowle), Jack Layton (Cotswold Hills), Sam Payne (Shirehampton Park) 41 points & several others on 40 points.
The day was a great credit to Cotswold Hills & its staff & members who will be offered the opportunity to host this event once more next Easter (Clubs are only allowed to host twice in succession) & once again bring these future golf stars to a great venue.
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