England and Ireland have enjoyed some great battles in recent years and the 3th/4th placed play-off at the Men’s Octangular International Challenge in Spain was no different yesterday.
And it was the teenage six from England that just edged out their old rivals at the Costa Balena Club with the last five singles matches all going down the 18th. Doncaster’s Josh Berry sealed the deal in the anchor tie, seeing off Liam Nolan 1 up.
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It maintains a remarkable run of tight matches. At last year’s Home Internationals England won 11-10 to take the title but the previous year, Ireland produced a stunning fightback in the singles to tie the match and win the overall competition at Hankley Common.
This time it was England’s young guns fighting back in impressive style. Having trailed after the morning foursomes 2-1, Florida-based Frank Kennedy beat Matt McClean to tie up the match but then Hugh Foley saw off Bury St Edmunds’s Tyler Weaver at the 18th. The England U-18s champion had been struck down by illness during the first two days, one of a number of players from different countries to suffer in the early part of the tournament.
Thereafter England’s bottom four all went unbeaten to round of an excellent week. All six members of the squad were juniors last year and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final. A 5-4 loss in their final pool game against the Netherlands meant they finished second in their group. Yesterday the Dutch six lost the final on the 18th green as Jose Antonio Sintes secured a half to ensure the hosts retained the winners trophy.
England had been handed a good draw in the Men’s Octangular International Challenge having been grouped with the Netherlands plus Portugal and Italy. Germany, Spain, Ireland and France made up the other pool.
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And they took full advantage on the opening day, seeing off the Italians 6-3, which included an 8&7 foursomes victory for Kennedy and Coxmoor’s Seb Cave. The duo also both won their singles while Berry was also 2/2.
The next day Portugal were also defeated by the same score as Berry remained undefeated for the tournament while The Rayleigh Club’s Harley Smith and Huddersfield’s Dylan Shaw-Radford both gained 1.5 points on the day.
It meant the two unbeaten Group A sides went head-to-head on Friday and the Dutch were 2.5-0.5 up after the morning foursomes before Jack Ingham saw off Berry 7&6 in the top singles match.
Kennedy, Shaw-Radford, and Cave all won their ties but Smith lost to Loran Appel 2&1 and Weaver and Denny Kloeth halved the bottom match.
It meant a showdown with the Irish for third and the more experienced team looked in pole position at lunchtime as only Smith and Weaver won for the English in the foursomes.
But Shaw-Radford saw off the vastly-experienced O’Keeffe in match three, Smith and Cave halved with Joshua Hill and Rob Brazil respectively before Berry beat recent South American Amateur champion Nolan by 1 hole.