Matchplay champ retains title after close-fought final
HEAT IS ON – BUT BILLINGHAM TRIUMPHS
JAMES Billingham (Cosby) is the county golf union matchplay champion for the second successive season.
He won a close match against new county champion Chris Brook (Hinckley), who was chasing an elusive double by adding the coveted Phillip R Wykes Bowl to the strokeplay trophy he won at Lutterworth a week earlier.
Billingham, the county first team vice-captain, won by two holes. He won the trophy at Long cliffe for the first time last season.
He said: “I am proud and delighted to have retained this title. But it was a very good match, so worthy of the final.”
For the second successive weekend a county major title was settled in hot sunshine. The heat was as intense as the competition among leading county amateur golfers, with just a teasing wind to pose an added test to the head-tohead encounters over two days.
In the final, Billingham went one up at the first hole. The next three were halved and Billingham increased his lead at the fifth, before Brook won the next two – the par 5 seventh with birdie – to level, before a Billingham birdie at eight and another at the par three ninth saw him restore his two-hole lead at the turn.
He went further in front with yet another birdie, his third in a row, at the 10th hole.
They halved 11 and 12, before a Brook birdie at 13 cut Billingham’s advantage.
The 14th was shared in birdie threes and a third successive Brook birdie at the short 15th saw him only one behind with three holes left to play.
They halved 16 and 17, but Billingham made sure of retaining the trophy with a birdie four at the last to move into the winner’s circle again.
■ Results: round one: C Brook (Hinckley) beat J Merry (Birstall) 1-hole; S. Sansome (Birstall) beat W Watkins (Lutterworth) 7 and 5; J Hack (Lutterworth) beat L Plant (Cosby) 3 and 2; J. Fromant (Kib-
The heat was as intense as the competition among leading county amateur golfers
worth) beat S Wormleighton (Birstall) 4 and 3; J Billingham (Cosby) beat M Turns (Hinckley) 7 and 6; T Roberts (Rothley Park) beat L Burrows (Cosby) 3 and 2; G Raitt (Whetstone) beat O Lewis (Kibworth) 3 and 1; M. Anderson (Glen Gorse) beat O Tweed (Willesley Park) 9 and 7.
Quarter-finals: Brook beat Sansome at 19th hole; Hack beat Fromant 4 and 3; Billingham beat Roberts two holes; Raitt beat Anderson one hole.
Semi-finals: Brook beat Hack 4 and 3; Billingham beat Raitt 4 and 3.
Final: Billingham beat Brook two holes.