Warwickshire Golf
MENS 2nd TEAM EDGE AHEAD AT EDGBASTON
Warwickshire Mens 2nd Team V Staffordshire
Sunday 2nd June
Edgbaston Golf Club
Team Selected:
Josh Davenport – Maxstoke Park
Rhys Wallace – Handsworth
Tommy Lewis – Nuneaton
Jacob Parsons – The Warwickshire
Ethan Trouth – Moor Hall
Lewis Watson – Handsworth
Dan Launchbury – Coventry
Ben Smith – Coventry
Chris Staite – Robin Hood
Nev Gardner – Stoneleigh Deer Park
The second league match of the 2019 season saw Warwickshire facing a home tie against Staffordshire at Edgbaston GC. One of our counties finest courses, it’s always a pleasure to get a match at Edgbaston. Despite their being some heavy showers around the area and a reasonably brisk breeze both teams were present on time and ready to battle.
Josh Davenport and Rhys Wallace led the way for Warwickshire. Josh recently returning from his studies and golf in America and Rhys hot off his course record at Robin Hood in the Boys Midland Counties Championship earlier this week. Quick out the blocks they would race into an early 3up lead and with solid golf and some great putting they would never be in any real danger and closed out a 6 & 5 victory before the final group of the morning session had even completed 10 holes.
Match 2 saw the previously unbeaten partnership of Tommy Lewis and Jacob Parsons reconvene and they looked to once again be heading for victory being 2 up with 6 to play. However, a few missed fairways and some inspired golf from their Staffordshire opponents would turn the match around and end in a 2 down defeat for the Warwickshire pair.
Ethan Trouth and Lewis Watson have played a lot of junior golf together and got off to the hottest of starts being 5up after just 6 holes. They would be pegged back to just the 2 up after 10 holes but in no way shaken the Warwickshire men snuffed out the fightback and would close out a 5 & 3 win.
Dan Launchbury and Ben Smith were in a very close battle and this would go all the way to the last hole and final putt. One down on the final tee the Warwickshire guys managed to give themselves a 6 foot opportunity to half the match. A lip out would mean a one hole defeat.
In the final foursomes game Chris Staite and Nev Gardner (another well-seasoned pairing) were doing lots of good things golf wise to take the initiative at the turn. Not for stopping and keeping mistakes to a minimum, they would run out 3 & 2 winners.
Warwickshire had a slender 3-2 lead over lunch, it was still very much all to play for.
Josh Davenport kicked off the singles order for Warwickshire and played immaculate golf to dominate his match from start to finish and win 7 & 5. Josh has always been a fantastic player but there is clear improvement in his game from the last time we saw him. A great performance.
Rhys Wallace out 2ndwas equally impressive. A man in a rich vein of form combined with a red-hot short game and putter usually means one thing. 6 & 4 was the margin of victory in this game and Rhys is unbeaten in the league so far.
It’s worth a quick mention that neither Josh or Rhys lost a single hole in the foursomes or singles matches today. If that’s been done before then it has to be rare. Well done.
Ethan Trouth was our 3rdman and Ethan would lose the first 3 holes in his match. Staying patient and self-resolving some left issues Ethan dug in and battled hard to stay in the contest. Onto the back nine and the deficit was reducing, a great birdie on 16 would see Ethan take the lead. On the 18thwith Ethan still 1 up both players were on the fairway. The Staffordshire player was first to play and hit a very good shot to a tough back pin position, approximately 15 feet from the pin. Ethan, with it all in the balance then played the shot of the day for me. A beautiful short iron to just 2 feet from the hole really was a class shot in the circumstances. A 2up victory was just reward for such a shot and an unbeaten debut for the 2ndteam – great golf.
Lewis Watson was next and he was down early on to then be 3 down at the turn. Fighting hard the Staffordshire Captain just had too much for him on the day and he would succumb to a 4 & 2 defeat.
Ben Smith was playing some very good golf but so was his Staffordshire opponent, Ben was 1up after 7 holes but birdies by his opponent on the 8thand 9thwould see him reach the turn 1 behind. Another birdie on the 15thfrom the Staffordshire man would see Ben fall dormie 3 down. A brave birdie on 16 would extend the match for Ben, but another Staffordshire birdie on the 17thfinished the match 3 & 1.
Dan Launchbury was playing some great golf early on in his game and would be 3 under par through 9 holes for his 2 up lead at the turn. A fightback early on the back 9 would see the Staffs player take a brief lead, but three consecutive holes won for Dan would see him close out a 3 & 1 win.
Tommy Lewis started slowly and would find himself a couple down early in his match, entering the back nine and this one was nip and tuck and always seemed destined to reach the final hole. Tommy hit a great approach to the heart of the green and when the Staffs player went over the back of the green it looked for all money that a par could be enough to seal the point. However courageously the Staffs man hit a fantastic chip and when Tommy lagged to concession range a solid 6 footer for the half was holed out and a fair half point was shared.
Jacob Parsons was in a battle and this match was close all the way round. Seemingly, never more than a hole in it Jacob would have a putt on the 17thto make the match all square. This putt would lip out and then from just off the fairway on the 18thJacob got a huge flyer out of the rough sending his approach sailing through the back of the last green. An unfortunate 2 hole loss with plenty of good golf in there.
Chris Staite was seemingly in control of his match with a lead at the turn. A run of lost holes on the back nine however would see the lead evaporate and a good up and down on the last green would be enough for Staffordshire to take this match by a single hole.
The mathematically conscious of you may realise that up to here the match score is 7.5 – 6.5 to Warwickshire. However, this isn’t how the timeline played out exactly.
Nev Gardner was playing in the anchor role and he was fully in control of the last match and with some very good golf he would close out his point with a 7 & 6 victory. Meaning he watched the majority of the last four paragraphs above unfold standing with me by the 18thgreen.
Warwickshire had taken the singles 5.5 to 4.5 and the overall match by 8.5 to 6.5.
A superb win for us to make it two from two in the league this season.
My thanks to Simon and the Staffordshire team for a great match played in very good spirits and to Edgbaston golf club for allowing us to use the wonderful facilities for our match today.
A large supporting cast of helpers to thank (they had heard the sandwiches were good apparently) Mark Reynolds, John Stubbings, Matt Nixon, Bob Wallace and Chris Watson, thank you so much for the kind support and encouragement in the sometimes heavy rain.
The squad has a great mix of youth and experience, of today’s team 5 players under the age of 20, 4 under 30 and of course our token senior. It’s fantastic to benefit first hand from the junior coaching programs put in place in recent years by Warwickshire. It bodes well for the future successes of Warwickshire.
Our next match is away against Nottingham at Coxmoor, where we will need to be at our very best to keep our winning run going.
FOR MATCH SCORE SHEET CLICK HERE
Chris Brown
2ndTeam Captain
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