Yelverton Golf Club

Yelverton Juniors – West Devon Junior Golf League Champions 2010

Staddon Heights Golf Club was the setting for this year’s WDJGL Final, which saw respective group winners; Elfordleigh & Yelverton battle it out for the overall League Title.

It was Yelverton that received an early boost when Elfordleigh’s Chris Benson failed to show due to “illness”, so a quick team re-shuffle saw Junior Organiser, Mark Davies’ son, George given the news that he had put the first point for Yelverton on the scoreboard, albeit by virtue of a “walkover”! Josh Reeday was moved to partner 11-year-old James Dawson in the foursomes encounter, a day after James had secured the Runners Up slot in Stover’s Junior Open (Division 3).

The match itself, was an evenly contested affair with the four remaining matches reaching the turn all square with each team ahead in two of the respective “head to head” encounters. Walking off the 13th green, 4up with 5 to play Yelverton Junior Captain, James Smith looked well on his way to securing another valuable point in his match against Elfordleigh counterpart, Jack Philpotts and with the Reeday & Dawson combination 4up through 12 holes against the young Elfordleigh pairing of Dominic Allen & Matthew Cooper, the League title looked to be heading Yelverton’s way.

The remaining two Yelverton players Frazer Reed & Kieran Alder, both of whom had boasted 100% playing records to date, albeit for very different reasons, were involved in much closer affairs, at least through the first seven holes. At this point, Elfordleigh’s Stuart Joliffe, won 5 consecutive holes against the luckless Reed who walked off the 12th green 5 down! He did however have the consolation of knowing that in his previous 4 appearances when he’d lost, the team had come out victorious! Hopefully this 100% record would continue?

Alder on the other hand had not tasted defeat in any of his previous 6 League matches played, although his opponent Matt Harrison was providing tough resistance with neither player being able to establish much more than a 1 hole advantage at any time throughout the contest. Suddenly the match was about to shift up a gear and with it the destiny of the League Title would be decided.

Joliffe completed an impressive 6&5 victory over Reed, the foursomes went Yelverton’s way 5&3 and with Harrison winning the 16th & 17th holes, Alder’s 100% record had gone and the match was finely balanced at 2 games each with just the Captains’ game still to conclude.

What was to follow, ranks highly amongst any outcome to a League title with few giving Philpotts a chance of pegging back Devon County player Smith?

The advantage of receiving a shot at the difficult par 4, 14th had seen Philpotts back to 3 down and when his tee shot at the 156 yard 15th finished some 6 feet or so away and Smith 3-putting, the lead was now down to two! A wayward approach at the 16th meant Smith was facing a near-impossible up and down and with it his lead of 4 had soon become the solitary 1up standing on the 17th tee.

It was now Philpotts turn to prove errant and although his tee shot to the 195yard Par 3 17th appeared to have found a plantation on the left, a hard bounce off a service track meant that his ball had come to rest on the 13th green, some 40 yards or so, beyond the targeted 17th! Smith had responded to this with an excellent tee shot coming to rest less than 10 feet from the hole, advantage Yelverton, or so it seemed!

Philpotts chip back to the 17th green, whilst finding the putting surface was still some 20 plus feet away, so the gathered crowd were now anticipating the concluding few minutes of this excellent match. As many of you will know, Golf can be a funny game at times and this was to be highlighted when Philpotts rolled in his putt and with Smith’s effort to close out the match rolling agonisingly across the face of the hole, it was onto the 18th tee, advantage Smith - just!

Both players stayed away from the left hand side (out of bounds) but with Smith finding a bush on the right hand side of the fairway, his hack out and ensuing bogey was bettered by Philpotts par and with it the match and the destiny of the title was off down the 19th, as the encounter went into extra holes!

Philpotts at this time appeared to have the upper hand, as certainly the momentum was with him, although this was soon to disappear as his tee shot went out of bounds! Advantage Smith, who yet to play returned his driver to his bag and the resultant iron option left him safely up the fairway. Despite his obvious disappointment Philpotts then launched his provisional tee shot the full 338 yards of Staddon’s 1st hole, ending up some 4 or 5 feet away from the pin!

The deciding match going down the 19th hole

Smith’s approach and putt could only leave both boys discussing who was the nearest, and with Philpotts marginally further away it was he who stepped forward in order to secure his par, Once again, we were about to be reminded about the joys and pains of the game we love, as Philpotts putt slipped by the hole whilst, much to his team mates relief (not to mention Junior Organiser) up stepped Smith to sink the putt and with it the title was Yelvertons!

What makes this achievement all the more pleasing was that Yelverton’s Junior team, despite missing valuable squad players, Ryan Acres, Dan Rosevear, Tom Watkins, Henry Chamberlain, Iain Couper and Rob Lilley (a very respectable team in itself, most of whom were away on holiday) were still able to field a team that were a credit to the section, as a whole.

Whilst Championship Day at Stover now looms (Monday 16th August -18 holes Semi Final v Bigbury A.M. followed by the Final or 3rd/4th play off versus Elfordleigh or Staddon P.M.) the securing the League Title also means that Yelverton’s Juniors will go forward to represent the West of the County at the Henry Truscott Trophy on Friday 29th October 2010.

Well done to all of the boys for an excellent 2010 League Campaign!

Champione Champione – Ole Ole Ole!