DEVON SENIORS CRUSHED

DEVON SENIORS TEAM CRUSHED AT ORCHARDLEIGH

Devon Seniors attempt to reach the English County Finals for the third year in a row fail with a lack lustre performance in the South West Counties two day event at Orchardleigh, 27-28 July.

The event which is an Individual strokeplay event for the Leonard Lake Trophy also acts as the SW Counties Team Qualifier for the County Finals being held at Berwick upon Tweed in October.

Manager Rick Pillow's  chosen team of Tim Aggett, Tony Allsopp, Phil Lyons, Colin Papworth, Paul Vicary and Simon Waddington from whom the five best scores counted on each day, only Devon Seniors Champion Colin Papworth produced a respectable three over par 75 score for the team. Other scores of 80, 79, 80, 81 and 81 did not reflect the form that shows why Devon are currently top of the Channel League. 

Devon who started as likely favourites to win the team event although expecting stiff opposition from Wiltshire and Gloucestershire (the eventual winners) certainly did not expect to end the first day bottom. Despite some on/off inclement weather good scoring from other teams showed that the course was not that difficult.

For such a virtual all round team performance the Manager can only take the blame and responsibility for perhaps poor preparation, communication, accommodation and catering arrangements for the selected team together with his decision to play in the event itself (as defending Champion) which forced him to withdraw from the second day to spend more time with the team.

The second day produced some team improvements with a solid 74 from Paul Vicary and a four over par 76 from Tim Aggett but not enough from others to lift Devon away from the 'wooden spoon' position.

Amongst the other Devon players competing in the main event for the Individual title, Dainton Park's Richard Ward was the pick with excellent scores of 75 and 76 to finish 7th only two shots off the eventual winner. East Devon's Jim Colvin again produced good Individual form with 75 and 77 one shot behind Ward.

Such a blow for the team means a re-think for the future as the County invest so much for producing the best performances from their teams and the 'failure' to compete against the five other Counties last week is concerning to all.

Rick Pillow

Devon Seniors Team Manager

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