ENGLAND NAME PROMISING ‘B’ SQUAD - 14th Jan 2005

Following the announcement of their Elite and ‘A’ Squads, England has also selected a 16-strong ‘B’ Squad, intended for emerging players who show genuine longer term potential to become top golfers.

The emphasis is on youth as well as experience with the squad containing nine teenagers and six boy internationals. Only five players are over 20, which is the average age of the squad.

The boy caps are Lawrence Allen from Hertfordshire, Yorkshire’s Simon Bell, Ben Evans and Oliver Turnill from Sussex and the Essex pair of Tommy Hunter and Lloyd Kennedy.

Apart from their international honours, Allen, 18, reached the semi-finals of the English Amateur in 2003, Bell, 20, helped Yorkshire win the County Championship in 2002 and was a member of the side that won the Nations Cup in the Czech Amateur Championship last year, Hunter, 19, won the McEvoy Trophy in 2003, while Kennedy, also 19, a former Essex champion, won the Hampshire Hog and Faldo Commemoration Jug in 2004.

Also named in the squad is Lancashire’s Daniel Belch, 22, the 2004 Tillman Trophy winner, and 20-year-old Neil Chaudhuri, Midland Order of Merit winner in 2003, who finished third in the Berkhamsted Trophy last year and was a member of the Leicestershire side in the County Championship Finals.

Among others included are Rob Harris, 18, the current Midland Boys champion, who represented Lincolnshire in the 2003 Boys County Finals, Tom Maddison, 18, who reached the semi-finals of the British Boys Championship last year and played for Durham in the County Championship Finals and Grant Jackson, the 2004 North of England Youths Champion.

Kevin Moore, 22, a former member of the England Youth Squad, from the Isle of Man, is also named along with Robert Steele, 21, a semi-finalist in the 2002 English Amateur Championship and the 2004 Midland Open Amateur champion.

Graham Benson, who joins the squad, proved his ability in winning an outstanding victory in the British Boys Championship and 18 year old Craig Waugh who is also named is the Norfolk Amateur Champion who plays off plus-two.

The oldest member of the squad is four-time Lincolnshire champion James Crampton, 32. The plus-four handicapper from Spalding won the English County Champions Tournament in 2003, as well as the Chiberta Grand Prix in France last summer.

Two three-day training sessions are scheduled for the squad at the National Golf Centre, Woodhall Spa. One has already taken place in December and the other is scheduled for March.

The full 'B' Squad is:
Lawrence Allen (Brookmans Park)
Daniel Belch (Hillside)
Simon Bell (Baildon)
Graham Benson (Leighton Buzzard)
Neil Chaudhuri (The Leicestershire)
James Crampton (Spalding)
Ben Evans (Rye)
Rob Harris (Woodhall Spa)
Tommy Hunter (Ilford)
Grant Jackson (Garforth)
Lloyd Kennedy (Chelmsford)
Tom Maddison (Castle Eden)
Kevin Moore (Douglas)
Robert Steele (Kenilworth)
Oliver Turnill (Bognor Regis)
Craig Waugh (Dunston Hall)

Related Links

• http://www.englishgolfunion.org

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