FORMAT: Five rounds of matchplay – 5 players per team
There was unbridled joy for the players and supporters of Pyle and Kenfig as the Glamorgan club won the Welsh Team Championship for the first time in 25 years at Pennard last night.
P&K have endured some pretty unforgettable near misses – incredibly losing the 2000 final at home to Newport when Brian Lee holed his second shot at the second extra hole – but this time around they came through against the home club 3-2.
Having already beaten reigning champions Mountain Ash in the second round, they tackled a formidable Pennard fivesome and around 100 home supporters on the Gower Peninsula.
And in the end it came down to the top match where Tom Peet, playing in the same side as his father Matthew, executed a stunning up and down at the third extra hole to beat Joe Jones.
Captain and Welsh Amateur runner-up David Phillips has seen the club develop into something of a regional powerhouse and paid tribute to a couple of its most influential members.
“Ten years ago Matthew (Peet) and Ian Booth rebuilt the junior section and rebuilt the club in many ways and this week I have left ten scratch players at home,” said the 34-year-old.
“We have 60-70 category one players and it was fitting Matthew played so well in the final. There was no way in a million years he was going to lose that match.”
The 49-year-old club stalwart, who was rested for the semi-final, was away on Wales duty – in Sweden – when Pyle and Kenfig last won the title at Cardigan Bay but this time around played in the bottom match, beating Archie James 5&4.
In match four Pennard’s Oliver Dickson saw off Jamie Jones 3&2 while Hari Pachu got the better of the P&K captain by birdieing the last. With Tim Harry responding in kind for the ‘away team’ it meant the top match was the last to finish. At the first extra play-off hole Peet Jnr kept the game alive with an excellent two-putt before getting himself out of trouble at the par five 16th with a sublime chip to beat Joe Jones.
The P&K skipper added: “The plan for the final was to try and take them to the last few holes and see how they could do. We knew they were going to be feeling the tension in the crowd more.
“I won four out of five matches but didn’t get many cheers. It was cetainly a tough crowd. However the final was played in a great spirit and the Pennard club and team conducted themselves so well.”
In the morning semi-final against Royal St David’s, the soon-to-be champions put in a dominant effort, led by Tom Peet who saw off Iwan Lewis 8&6. With his father given a rest, Ronan Oliver stepped up superbly to defeat Joe Soar by one hole, and with the skipper winning his match from the No 2 berth, the final two games walked in with both P&K players in good positions.
4-1 would be a popular scoreline for the champions. It was also score they won their three other matches – against Greenmeadow (first round), Mountain Ash (second round) and Aberdare (quarter-finals).
In 2022 they will defend the title in their centenary year at Cardigan Bay.