2012 Finals, 1, 2 and 3rd July at Burnham and Berrow
The 2012 HMC Foursomes Finals will be played on Monday and Tuesday 2nd and 3rd July at Burnham and Berrow Golf Club in Somerset where we will be hosted by Millfield School. Warm thanks go to Phil Cookson at Millfield for offering the accommodation and to Burnham for agreeing to take the tournament.
Please note that the Finals are a week earlier than usual. About 70% of the HMC Schools finish term at the end of June and for them this date is ideal. For those schools that finish later, it should be possible for schools to release the golfers during the last week of term – all public exams have then finished. These dates should avoid the disappointment of teams losing players because of family holiday commitments.
Burnham and Berrow is a superb links course overlooking the Bristol Channel. This year it hosted both the British Boys’ Championships and the EGU Brabazon Trophy. It also has the excellent 9 hole Channel Course.
The Championship Course at Burnham will be available to teams for a practice round on the afternoon of Sunday 1 July
Wellington Victorious!
The 2011 HMC Foursomes Golf National Finals were won by Wellington College who overcame Millfield School in a closely contested final at the Warwickshire GC on July 12th and 13th.
The setting of the Warwickshire Golf Club was ideal for this tournament and we were blessed with good, benign golfing conditions. The 7100 yard Earl’s Course was used for all the matches. This relatively new course set in mature woodland was in first-rate condition and posed many challenging and interesting tests to the players. The Club could not have been more welcoming and all enjoyed its friendly and efficient atmosphere.
We are also very grateful to Rugby School who hosted the teams in School Field House. Players had their own individual rooms and the breakfasts were ideal for 36 gruelling holes of foursomes golf. Thanks are due to Bob Drennan from Rugby who set up the accommodation at Rugby.
The six schools which won their regional knock-out competitions - Berkhamsted, Bolton, Canford, Reeds, Solihull and Wellington - were joined by Loretto and Millfield, last year’s finalists. The schools were divided into two groups according to handicap, with the schools in each group playing each other in a round robin. It was particularly good to have five girls, a record, playing this year. The girls played from the men’s back tees but this proved to be no problem to them.
In Group A, Wellington won all their three matches by a 2-1 margin and it is significant that Reeds, Solihull and Bolton each managed to win one of the three matches; the top Reeds pair of Kiran Dayawala and Nick Solomons managing to beat the top Wellington pair. The Solihull team managed to take all three Wellington pairs to the last green.
Loretto and Millfield dominated Group B but Canford and Berkhamsted did manage to glean a few points. Wednesday morning’s encounter between Loretto and Millfield was a re-run of the 2010 Final and Millfield managed to reverse the result, winning 2-1. In the top match, the Loretto pair of Patrick Horsting and Sami Bouzabia looked forlorn at 5 down after 10 but their flurry of five birdies in six holes would have broken most opponents but the Millfield pair of Matt Sheehan and Sophie Keech responded with a similarly inspired rush of birdies to hang on to a 3/2 victory and give their team a place in the final.
The final between Millfield and Wellington proved to be a nail-biting affair with all three matches close throughout the afternoon. The top match – delightfully between two boy/girl pairs – went Millfield’s way by 2/1. The other two matches both reached the 18th tee with Wellington 1 up. In both cases Wellington managed to score par 5’s which was good enough to win their matches and bring the trophy to Wellington for the first time.
In the Tankard event for the other six schools, played over 9 holes of the King’s Course, Loretto triumphed with their pair of Peter Templeton and Niclas Bringsken winning the cup for the best pair with a score of 28 points on the ‘generous stableford’ scoring scheme – effectively one under par.
There are clearly three schools which are stronger than the rest but the system of giving the two finalists automatic entry to next year’s finals gives other schools a good chance of reaching the finals if they have a good team. A salver is now awarded to each school which wins its regional qualifying and reaches the finals – a significant achievement for any school golf team. The results of the individual matches in this year’s finals show repeatedly that pairs with much higher handicaps often beat more fancied opponents, such are the vagaries of junior and foursomes golf.
This has been James Nicholl’s last year in charge of HMC Foursomes Golf and in his three years the competition has been consolidated and improved in many ways. For example, this year saw the introduction of individual trophies for all the competitors to recognise their achievement in reaching the Finals. We thank James warmly for his excellent efforts.
Foursomes is a wonderful way of playing golf in the context of a team match and the excellent spirit and enjoyment that was on display at the Warwickshire from all the teams speaks volumes for the game played in this format.
Barry Wild
Winners: Wellington College -Jordan Mann, Alex Peters, Heidi Baek, Murray Rose, Charlie Coleman, Maxime Saxena Coach Iain Henderson
Runners Up: Millfield School – Matt Sheehan, Jamie Clare, Katherine Carragher, Sophie Keech, Joe Lovery, Pat Fereday Coaches: Stuart Wells and Karen Nicholls
2011-12 Draw & Play-by dates
Play by dates for the 2011-12 season are as follows: Round 1 by end October Round 2 by end December Semi-final by end April Final by end May
Competition Rules
The HMC Schools Foursomes Competition Rules for the Regional Rounds - Updated January 2011 1. All matches are to be played between three foursomes pairs as match-play without consideration of handicaps. 2. Only school children in full time education studying a nationally-recognised course of study at their school (e.g. GCSEs or A levels or well-defined equivalents) are eligible to play in the competition. 3. The usual R & A rules for match play should be used. Any disputes in matches must be resolved by the masters i/c the teams. 4. Teams are expected to play their pairs in their presumed order of strength from the top, but this does not mean that they must play their lowest handicappers in the top pair. Whilst this rule is open to interpretation, it is hoped by the Committee that the integrity of Masters in Charge will not need to be brought into question. 5. Girls are eligible to play but they must use the same tees as the rest of the team. 6. Except for the clarification of the Rules of Golf, no-one other that the Team Captain (including Master in Charge, Coach, Golf Professional, Parent, other team member) may communicate with players playing a match and such people should therefore keep an appropriate distance away from players at all times during play. This rule precludes the use of caddies. Contravention of this rule should result in the loss of the hole on which the infringement takes place. 7. If a game is all-square after 18 holes, play must continue until a hole is won and a decision is reached. The only exception to this is when one team has already won two games the third game may be halved. 8. If a school is unable to turn out three pairs on the date arranged for the match, it should inform the opponents beforehand and automatically forfeit the bottom match. 9. The home team has choice of venue, but if the away team has to travel more than 50 miles, a venue must be chosen by the home team which equates the travelling time between the two schools as far as possible. 10. Dates for completion of rounds must be adhered to. Extensions of one week only may granted by the Regional Manager when there are exceptional circumstances, but thereafter the match must be decided by the toss of a coin.
Loretto triumph on home soil!
HMC SCHOOLS' FOURSOMES FINALS 2010
Craigielaw just to the North East of Edinburgh was the setting for the 2010 HMC Foursomes Finals where the 6 Regional Finalists, Bedford, RGS Guildford, Truro, Wellington, Loretto and Harrow came to join battle against last year’s two Finalists Millfield and Epsom.
Playing on their home course with their two Professional coaches in attendance, Loretto were clear favourites. However, with the two other Golf Academies taking part, all three sporting players from various parts of the globe playing off scratch or better, the playing standard was surely the best that these Finals have ever witnessed.
After a month of glorious sunshine spreading across the whole of the UK, Sunday afternoon saw some of the most atrocious weather this corner of Scotland had ever seen: gale force gusts of wind driving the torrential rain and hail across the course meaning that several teams felt unable to complete their rounds. Thankfully, Monday saw a respite from the rain, though the wind was certainly still going to be a factor.
The seeding saw Truro, the lowest-handicapped non-academy school, grouped with the top seeds Loretto, last year’s runners-up Epsom and RGS Guildford, whilst the other group looked from the start like it was going to come down to a battle between Millfield and Wellington, the latter of which was weakened by the absence of its two top girls, both of whom were off playing in the European Championships, with Bedford and Harrow the other two teams hoping to cause an upset.
And so it proved – for a short while at least. Whilst the overall tables showed that all went to form in the end, the Academies did not have it all their own way. Several matches were forced into play-off holes, with the 2nd pairs in the Epsom v Loretto game having to play 6 extra holes - surely another HMC record - before Epsom came out on top. Indeed it was pleasing that although the eventual group winners did predictably turn out to be Loretto and Millfield, the bottom seeds in each group, Guildford and Harrow, both won one pair’s game, the third seeds in each, Epsom and Bedford, both won one match, and the second seeds in each, Truro and Wellington, both ran their illustrious opponents close in what proved to be the deciding matches.
The Final too was in the balance for a long while. Loretto’s Korean import, Julie Yang - surely one to watch in the future - together with her partner Lewis Gregory, never looked troubled, winning with three holes to spare, but the other two matches both came down to the 18th, Millfield’s female pairing of Melissa McMahon and Sophie Keech winning theirs, but Loretto’s top German pairing of Max Walz and Marvin Aardhammer pulling off the desperately required win for Loretto to take the match 2-1.
And so on to the Stableford competition contested by the six non-Finalists over 9 holes. Epsom’s stalwart pairing of Jeremy Morgan and Lewis Kuhler won the best pair with a fantastic level par score; and after one or two queries over the marking of cards, the Organiser saw fit to be lenient to the winning school, Truro, who become proud winners of the Tankard. Many congratulations to all!
A final word about the spirit of this competition: For the majority of schools, reaching the Finals is an outstanding achievement of a year’s golf well played and it is for this reason that there is now a trophy for each Regional Winner. And it is these schools which represent the spirit of this competition to the utmost – one only has to look at the sartorial elegance of the Harrow team dressed in co-ordinated but individually-sourced clothing. The Academies, with their imported scratch golfers, dedicated professional coaching, on-course fist-pumping, top of the range golf wear, to say nothing of the untoward and unhealthy parental pressure, should perhaps now consider looking elsewhere for their accolades...
Winners: Loretto Runners-up: Millfield Tankard: Truro Best pair: Morgan & Kuhler (Epsom)