Bay’s young squad swings into action in Portugal
WHITLEY Bay’s golf starlets flew the flag for England in a top competition, writes TONY HODGSON.
The team of Rosie Belsham, Brandon Jones, Charlotte Pickering, James Burston, Aaron Blackwood and Jack Iredale competed in a home nations tournament at the Murgado Golf Resort in Portugal.
The squad finished third overall, defeating Scottish outfit St Andrew’s 4.5-1.5 in a third/ fourth-placed play-offs.
The under-18s qualified for Portugal by first winning their local junior league and then finishing runners-up in the North East final at Blyth GC. That took them through to the regional decider at Brampton in Cumbria, which they won, the national semi-finals at Carlisle and the finals at Clitheroe.
In Lancashire they ended up runners-up behind Hampshire squad Bramwell - the pair booking their places in Portugal as a result.
That was a marked improvement on the previous year, when Bay’s youngsters were fourth out of eight teams.
The event in Portugal consisted of two squads from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales who played on a round-robin basis in two groups of four.
Bay registered two draws and a narrow defeat - but team manager David Burston was delighted with how his proteges performed.
He said: “What the team did is a fine achievement and they did very well to secure third place.
“One or two bits of bad luck cost them but I was still very proud of what they did. “
Stephen Turner and Alex Jay were also part of the Bay party which travelled to the Iberian continent but did not play in the tournament.