What an exciting match! The footballing cliche 'a game of two halves' immediately comes to mind when trying to describe the day as a whole.

Our U18's welcomed Warwickshire in their latest league match at Halesowen GC in what realistically was a must win game having suffered defeat in our first match. Local knowledge certainly proved to be an advantage in the morning foresome matches as victories for the pairings of Krone/Blake, Hewlett/Wakeman, Lennon/Blizzard, Smith/Griffiths and Stephens/Jones gave us a clean sweep and established an unexpected but hard fought 5-0 lead.

As the mindset of only needing 3 points from 10 singles matches to gain victory seemed to take effect, Warwickshire took advantage and played some excellent golf to put us under pressure. There was a period mid way through the afternoon where we were only up in one game and the improbable began to look possible as we came under pressure. Although Cassius Blake and Tom Lennon gained valuable halves, they were disappointed not to secure victories and with only George Stephens ahead in the remaining matches, we began to wonder where the points were going to come from. Step up Elliot Jones and Ollie Smith! Both players had been behind for most of the afternoon with Elliot 5 down at at one stage. We needed both of them to get something out of their games with only a few holes remaining. With a positive, determined approach both players gradually began to turn their games around. Elliot won 4 holes in a row from the 14th and halved the last to win 1 up and Ollie Smith, on debut, won the 17th and 18th to gain victory on the last and so Worcestershire grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat. Many congratulations to both players. Outstanding!

Once again, every player in the team  contributed to the team score during the day which enabled Worcestershire to win by 9 pts to 6 pts.

Our thanks to Halesowen GC for their hospitality throughout the day which was first class, to Mark Hewlett and to all the parents / guardians who supported the boys throughout the day.

Roger Martin (Team Manager)

B LtoR Tom Blizzard (Droitwich) Tom Lennon (Halesowen) Phil Krone (c) (Moseley) Dan Wakeman (Hagley) Ollie Smith (Worcester)

F LtoR Cassius Blake (Kings Norton) Mark Hewlett (Gaudet Luce) Elliott Jones (Droitwich) George Stephens (Gaudet Luce) Tom Griffiths (Redditch)

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