The young England U16 team that lost by three points to Ireland at Hunstanton. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

A YOUNG England Under 16 squad earned praise for their gritty play in a narrow defeat to Ireland.

The visitors emerged from two days of tough competition at Norfolk’s Hunstanton Golf Club with a 16½-13½victory.

The win was sweet revenge for Ireland following England’s triumph at Limerick GC a year ago.

But there is much for the England staff and players to build on as they look ahead to the European Team Championships and Home Internationals in 2020 and beyond.

After the first day’s play featuring both foursomes and singles matches, Ireland held a 10½/2-7½ lead.

They were then made to fight all the way with honours even in terms of the 12 singles games on the second day, which produced a 6-6 tie allowing Ireland to claim overall victory.

Ireland’s strength lie particularly in the boys’ section but there was some sparkling golf on show from both countries.

The combined girls’ and boys’ teams had to put up with some treacherous conditions  – especially on Sunday when the wind and rain swept into Norfolk and produced some appalling weather for golf.

Yet the standard of play was of a very high standard.

Josh Berry beat Ireland’s England U16 Strokeplay Champion Josh Hill 6&5 in the Sunday singles. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

From the boys’ point of view the form of Yorkshire’s Joshua Berry was noteworthy – the 14-year-old managing to claim big singles victories against Joe Byrne and full Irish international Josh Hill – winner of the McGregor Trophy in July – by shooting under-par on both days.

Worcestershire’s Scottish U14 Boys Open Champion Hugh Adams, who was runner-up in the Reid Trophy, in August, also put two points on the board in singles to re-inforce his growing reputation at junior level.

In the girls’ squad, Nelson GC’s Lydia Cryer can also feel justifiably proud of her efforts having won all three games she played.

The Lancashire junior displayed great character to win both her singles matches on the 18th green.

Meanwhile, for the second season in succession Surrey’s Rafiah Banday ended the Irish match unbeaten – winning a foursomes tie and taking one and a half points from the Royal Mid-Surrey teeanger’s two singles games.

Even for those players unable to win full points or simply new to the set-up, there was plenty to admire about the way they coped with exposure to the international scene.

Close House’s Maggie Whitehead’s singles victory over Katie Poots on Sunday will fill the Northumberland-based player with confidence going forward.

Meanwhile, Farnham’s Lottie Woad was three-down with three to play in her singles game against Anna Dawson.

But the reigning Surrey Ladies Amateur Champion – who is just 16 – fought back to earn a half.

Ireland’s Beth Coulter had to come from two-down with two to play to deny Arcot Hall’s Rachel Gourley a point that her overall play perhaps merited.

A birdie on 17 and a fantastic up-and-down on 18 denied glory for Gourley, the second Northumbrian in the England team.

After the conclusion of the autumn round of junior internationals, England’s regional and national squads will meet up for coaching over the winter months at Woodhall Spa, the National Golf Centre, in Lincolnshire.

The juniors will receive one-to-one coaching and advice, which forms part of a personal development plan.

For full results from Hunstanton GC, click here.

England team:–
Hugh Adams (Hagley GC)
Jack Bigham (Harpenden GC)
Josh Berry (Doncaster GC)
Jack Ingham (Eindhovensche GC)
Harley Smith (Rayleigh GC)
George Durkan (Bishop’s Storford GC)
Thomas Hull (Spalding GC)
Rafiah Banday (Royal Mid Surrey GC)
Ameila Wan (Notts Ladies GC)
Maggie Whitehead (Close House GC)
Lydia Cryer (Nelson GC)
Rachel Gourley (Arcot Hall GC)
Lottie Woad (Farnham GC)

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JOSEPH Linel became the fourth Frenchman to lift the Reid Trophy denying Worcestershire’s Hugh Adams chance to become the first player to win the English Boys’ Under 14 Open Strokeplay Championship, back to back in its 25-year history.

The big-hitting 13-year-old, from Biarritz, posted a six-under par 54-hole aggregate of six-under despite a closing two-over par 74 at Stoke-on-Trent’s Trentham Golf Club.

Linel was made to fight all the way by Adams, from Hagley Golf Club, who closed with a four-under par 68 to get within three shots of catching the tall Frenchman.

It also proved to be a good final day for Harry Malin, from Bognor Regis, who fired four birdies over his last nine holes to card a 70 and finish tied for third place alongside Doncaster’s Joshua Berry on two-under.

Essex’s Harley Smith, from the Rayleigh Golf Club, performed well in both the McGregor Trophy and Carris Trophy in what is his first season playing in national junior events.

And Smith did it again by finishing with a 68 to share fifth place with Huddersfield’s Dylan Shaw-Radford on level-par.

Italy’s Lorenzo Lombardozzi also shot a 68 to finish in a share of seventh place alongside compatriot Luca Memeo and Prestbury’s Frank Kennedy two shots further behind.

Linel started the final day with a five-shot lead after opening rounds of 66 and 70, but bogeyed the first hole on his way to carding his highest score of the championship.

“I didn’t play as well today but my chipping was good which helped me,” Linel said. “I’m very happy. This is the biggest tournament I have ever won.”

The previous French winners of the Reid Trophy were Stanislas Gautier (2007) Antoine Kuoch (2013) and Alexandre Lasalarie (2015).

Past winners also include Friford Heath’s Eddie Pepperell, Toby Tree, Bradley Moore, Oscar Sharpe and Kent’s Jonathan Bell.

Final scores can be found here.

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Past winners of the Reid Trophy include Eddie Pepperell and Bradley Neil, who both have graduated to the European Tour – Hugh Adams is looking to be the first back-to-back winner in 25 years when the English U14s Boys Amateur Championship takes place at Trentham Golf Club, this week. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

HUGH Adams will be attempting to become the first player to win the Reid Trophy two years in a row when he tees up in the English Boys’ Under 14 Open Amateur Championship, at Staffordshire’s Trentham Golf Club, on Tuesday.

The 14-year-old, from Worcestershire’s Hagley Wood Golf Club, defeated Spain’s Angel Ayora with a par on the fifth hole of a sudden-death play-off in last year’s championship at Reading GC.

Adams joined a list of champions in the Reid Trophy’s 25-year history that includes Frilford Heath’s Eddie Pepperell, who claimed the title at Bristol & Clifton in 2005, and Scotland’s Bradley Neil – who won in 2010 at Hesketh.

Neil would go on to win The Amateur Championship in 2014, at Royal Portrush, while Oscar Sharpe, the 2006 winner – who was described as being better than Tiger Woods as a 13-year-old by Butch Harmon – never lived up to his prodigy status, despite winning the McGregor Trophy at the English U16s Championship in the same season.

The Reid Trophy always attracts a strong international field and this year is no different with competitors travelling to Trentham from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Morocco, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic and Wales.

The trophy has ended up in foreign hands in four out of the last seven years most recently in 2017 when South Africa’s Casey Jarvis pulled off a wire-to-wire victory at Manchester Golf Club.

A sizeable number of English competitors warmed up for the Reid Trophy by competing in the North of England Under 14 Junior Open Strokeplay Championship at South Moor.

But not included in that group was 14-year-old Essex golfer Harley Smith, from The Rayleigh Club, who has made quite a mark since making his debut at last month’s English Boys’ Under 16 Open Amateur Championship at Radcliffe-on-Trent Golf Club in Nottinghamshire.

He finished tied sixth in that event and also won the Jean Case Salver awarded to the leading player under the age of 15

Smith has since also claimed a tie for fourth place in the Hazards Salver presented to the leading under 16-year-old at the English Boys’ Under 18 Open Amateur Championship for the Carris Trophy.

The English Under 14 Boys’ Open Championship for the Reid Trophy is a 54-hole strokeplay event staged over three days.

The full field plays 18 holes on each of the first two days with the leading 70 competitors and ties progressing to play the final 18 holes on the third day.

Follow live scoring here

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