Wednesday 6th August saw the u18 team in their last fixture of the season at Swaffham Golf club in the Junior Anglian league Qualifier against Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.
The team set out without their talisman manager Jim Harrison knowing that they faced a tough assignment. The practice round was held under the watchful eye of Storm Floris leaving stand in managers Jeff Deslandes and Paddy Lockwood realising that the wind needed to drop substantially for the match the following day. It did.
The foursomes saw some nip and tuck games and at lunch it was extremely close with Norfolk having the upper hand against Cambridgeshire following a 3.5 to 1.5 score which included the last Norfolk group winning 17 and 18 for half after being 2 down with 2 to play. Bearing in mind that this group had Leighton Young in it this was a great performance. Leighton is 13, a local member with a handicap index of 8 and was drafted in after an extremely late call off. The rest of the matches finished 2 – 2 with Patrick Coffey and Josh Emery and Henry Ridgeon and Jack Sparrow winning both their matches for Suffolk.
The afternoon singles were equally tight. A rough count at hole 10 meant that all the managers were kept busy trying to work out the score with the need to identify what the sudden death play off would look like as this seemed more and more likely. Young Leighton was out in 7th spot and I suggest is a name we should remember. At the turn he was 2 under par. Later on he was the last player on the course and made an excellent bogey up 18 to win his match against Suffolk.
We retired to the clubhouse as anxious play off candidates warmed up. Once the results had been checked, rechecked and validated the scores were Norfolk 13.5, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire 11.5. No play off required. The full results can be seen by clicking on RESULT
Norfolk will play the winners of Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Rutland and Lincolnshire in the final at Boston on 18th August.
After the dust settled it was time to say good bye to Kane Russell who has played in most of the matches over the last 4 years as reaches retirement from the Juniors. Paddy Lockwood said that Kane had been an excellent role model, good leader and wished him well in whatever career he decides on.
