Junior Half Term News Part 2... A busy half term week culminated in some very creditable performances by Milton's Junior’s. We enjoyed mixed fortunes with one team progressing in the BCCS national knockout and one going out. Despite Sam Balaam and Adam Barker slipping to a narrow defeat, a stunning 10 up win by Oscar Bell and Emily Horsted took the A team through on aggregate 8 up against Greetham Valley. In the other tie, Ellie Horsted and Megan Chandler got a good half against a strong Cosby pair, but with Jacob Williams and Will Clark slipping to defeat, it's Cosby who progress to the next round. In the Junior County Championships at Cold Ashby, Milton's Juniors played well and had a series of close misses for the major prizes on a very low scoring day. In the overall individual trophies Charlie Pearce was third in the boys nett (66+67). Jacob Williams stormed the back 9 in the afternoon in 6 under par to clinch second place in the gross championship (78 + 70) losing out to Kettering's new Junior County Champion Joe Hyde (75+69). In the Girls Championship, Emily Horsted came a creditable third in the nett (72+67) and fourth in the gross, with Overstone Park's Bailey Pyke clinching the girl’s title (78+80). In the Irish Cup (am best nett) Oscar Bell was second with 42 points. Oscar teamed up with Emily and Ellie Horsted and Euan Herson for second places in both team Trophies. Kai Raymond performed well and gained valuable experience in the US Kids European Championships at Royal Musselburgh. Gross rounds of 77+76+83 saw 13 year old Kai finish a creditable 32nd in a very strong worldwide field won by USA's 13 year old Sihan Sandhu with incredible rounds of 67+66+70. Shivani Karthikeyan had a great performance against much lower handicap players in the South East Schools Championship, shooting rounds of gross 75 and 74 round Flackwell Heath to record the joint second lowest total of the day. This reduces Shivani's handicap to 7 - just 25 months ago Shivani was off 36 and this is a testament to Shivani's hard work on her game. Robin Williams recovered from a slow start at the Brabazon Trophy at Alwoodley for a tied 18th finish (76+70+66+73) against one of the strongest fields in men's amateur golf. Having stormed through the field with a great 66 on day three, a 2 under par front 9 on the final day had Robin into the top 10 and catching the eye of the watching Walker Cup selectors, only for a treble bogey on 10th to derail his attempts but Robin steadied the ship on a tough windy day. Rotherham's 16 year old Ben Schmidt stormed to a highly impressive victory (69+64+69+69) and he has put himself in pole position for a Walker Cup place. Good luck to Robin in the St Andrews Links Trophy next week and Open Qualifying coming up later in the month. Finally, congratulations to Junior Emily Horsted and her partner not-quite-so-junior Bob Bellamy on their weekend win in Milton's Amies Bowl.
Charles Gunn
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