Derbyshire Lads show their resilience in an exciting match!

The u16 Boys could perhaps have been accused of having low morale after suffering 2 consecutive defeats and knowing they were playing a very strong Warwickshire side that had won all of their games including away wins at Staffordshire and Shropshire.

Warwickshire arrived knowing that if they avoided defeat, they would be crowned champions.

I sensed a steely determination in the team, in that they wanted to prove they were better than recent results and so it proved.

The match was played on a beautiful crisp Autumn Day at Brailsford GC.

The team was led off by Henry Hayward, playing in his first fixture of the season (following a very successful busy international calendar of events) and the captain Ben Wain. This was closely followed by Tom Allen and Gavin Ingram. Both opening foursomes struggled against strong opponents and succumbed to defeats. It was clear from early on that Ben was suffering from illness.

So the day started with Derbyshire already 2 down. The new pairing of Tom Weeks & Harvey Sands never looked in trouble winning their game 4 & 2. James Lambert & Quinn Tinkler were fast out of the blocks and established a strong early lead which was surrendered on the back 9. At this point Oliver Neal and Shearer Chohan were 4 down and it looked very likely that Derbyshire were going to finish the morning 4 -1 down. A score which would have been difficult to recover from in the singles. The lads needed to dig deep and did so.  Both pairs rallied superbly in the last few holes with James & Quinn winning their game and a great comeback from Oliver & Shearer led to them halving their game to leave the foursomes all square at 2.5 to 2.5.

Henry led the team out in the singles, followed by Tom Allen who had a 100% singles record to protect.

With all the players out on the course, the match was extremely close at this stage with no more than one-hole difference in 8 of the 10 games. Ben having dropped down the order and struggling to walk was losing and Shearer was struggling against an opponent determined to atone for dropping half a point in the morning.

Both Henry & Tom Allen established leads on the back 9 and ensured that these were not relinquished, gaining Derbyshire the first2 points of the afternoon. This was quickly countered by Warwickshire with defeats for James and Oliver. Five of the remaining 6 matches would go to the end or finish on 17.

Tom Weeks lost with the last putt of his game and Harvey won his game by draining a 30-foot putt on the last. Now the match was all square at 5.5 points each. Warwickshire then moved ahead with Gavin being edged out on the 17^th and Shearer rallying but losing on the 16^th. It came down to Quinn and Ben needed to win for us to draw. The boys rallied round Quinn who was one up going down the last. Quinn, despite some very nervy moments for the spectators, managed to hang on to win 1 up. The team then headed out to find Ben who was playing (albeit very slowly) the 17^th. To everyone’s surprise and delight Ben was 2 up and with him winning the 17^th Derbyshire had pulled of a great result in achieving the draw.

Each player on the team had shown great character and resilience in their games and could be justifiably proud in drawing with the League Champions. Congratulations to Warwickshire.

A big thank you to the parents for their brilliant, positive support all season. Derbyshire Junior golf at its best.

Paul Wain

U16 Boys Team Manager

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