Knockout! Rothley Park are crowned champions
ROTHLEY Park have been crowned the 2021 Leicestershire and Rutland Seniors Team Knockout Champions after winning the final at Melton Mowbray GC, writes Jennifer Prentice.
The county took over both the organisation and the running of the tournament for the first time at the start of this year.
The tournament was launched only three years ago and was first won by Lutterworth GC and then Market Harborough last season.
In this year’s final, Rothley Park beat Kirby Muxloe 3.5-1.5 in the ten– a-side Stableford clashes.
John Dekonski, the Rothley Park senior captain, and Stan Piecha led the way when they notched 39 Stableford points and halved with Kirby Muxloe’s K. Meehan and C. Leeming in the top game.
County senior captain John Hardwick, who is a Rothley Park member, also played in this match.
But Hardwick and his clubmate T. Porte lost to to P. Johnstone and A. Evans by 4 and 3 despite scoring 40 points – three fewer than their opponents.
In the other matches Rothley Park’s A. Simpson and B. Wheeler beat D. Hewitt and J. Blades 37-36 pts, G. Warren and P. Footitt won by 39-38 pts against T. Spence and
M. White, and R. Morecroft and K. Earp won 40-39 pts against R. O’Hare and B. Wood, with all these games being closely contested too.
It was Bob Roberts, a Market Harborough member, who launched this seniors team knockout event.
A total of 12 county clubs took part in the 2019 event, with more joining later.
Originally the competing clubs were Beedles Lake, Charnwood Forest, Hinckley, Kibworth, Kilworth Spring, Kirby Muxloe, Longcliffe, Lutterworth, Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray, Scraptoft and Whetstone.
Last year, Cosby, Forest Hill, The Leicestershire, Lingdale and Rothley Park joined them.
Despite lockdown restrictions last year, the tournament was highly successful and was completed in full.
When Bob Roberts started the competition, the county union were asked if they would take on the organisation, but were told this would only be considered once it had become established.
This happened quickly once it proved to be a popular and valuable addition to the county fixture list and the demand among clubs was proved.
At the start of this season, after a consultation between the Market Harborough organisers and the county union, it was agreed it would become a county fixture for 2021.
But the tournament’s terms of competition would be amended by the county union.
One of these amendments was a change in format to Stableford match-play.
Kevin Whitfield-Green, pictured
below, the county’s director of tournaments, said: “We needed to be quite sure of the need and of the enthusiasm for a new event as we do have such a full programme already and, of course, a great deal of organisation is needed to keep them all running, locating courses and so on.
“But there is no doubt whatsoever that this senior team knockout attracted a huge amount of support, so we were pleased to give it the formal go-ahead and were delighted we were able to put it into our programme from this year.
“We do endeavour to cover the whole spectrum of golf club members from juniors up to seniors, with scratch and handicap championships each year, as well as a full programme of inter-county matches for all age groups.
“Our range is very wide these days. They go from boys’ stroke and match-play events, to men’s, pro/ am, under-35, and mixed inter-club foursomes, as well as our main amateur championship, the Philip Wykes Bowl for the match-play, the county open, the Midland Golf Union order of merit counting scratch open competition for the Leicestershire Fox contested annually at Willesley Park, and the Robin Fraser Trophy, a 72-holes World Amateur Ranking tournament played over two different courses on two days
“In addition, of course, we actively support other regional and national events through individual golfers from the county taking part and challenging for top honours.
“We believe we have a great mix of events to appeal to all our affiliated clubs and members and, on the whole, our tournament schedule compares very well with other counties, most of whom have far fewer each year than ourselves.”