Brokenhurst Manor lift Champion Club title again - 17th Sep 2007

Brokenhurst Manor from Hampshire won the English Champion Club Tournament for the second time when their three-man team finished two strokes ahead of the field at Hesketh.

Their aggregate of 452 was good enough to see them home ahead of Worthing from Sussex with Hexham from Northumberland third on 457.

With all three cards to count, Brokenhurst Manor were out early and posted a second day aggregate of 227, then spent several hours waiting to see if anyone could match their 20 over par tally. Jonathan Young returned 75 while his brother Martin and teenager Robert Gowers shot 76.

“We are absolutely delighted,” said team captain Jonathan Young. “This is about the fifth or sixth time Martin and I have played in this and at last we’ve won. I’m still in shock but we all contributed by putting in decent scores. Robert really shot a great round yesterday with 72 which got his handicap down to plus one.

“We were also pleased to be out early today. It is always good to be out and post a good score and not having to chase one. I also think we got the better of the conditions.”

But they had to wait around for the rest of the day to see the outcome. “It is not good to have to sit around and there was a lot of nail-biting. But it is always good when you win.”

At the start of the day, the Hampshire trio were sharing the lead with Sandiway but the Cheshire side faded with a second day 239 to finish down the field on 464.

Instead it was Worthing who took up the challenge with Scott Nightingale returning a level-par 72 backed by 76 from David Fluke and 77 by Nigel Harrington. But their 454 came up a little short.

Hesketh is never a course to take lightly and on another testing day when the calm conditions gradually gave way to a keen breeze, it bared its teeth.

Ben Taylor from Hexham in Northumberland, Jason Palmer from Kirby Muxloe in Leicestershire, Richard Aisbitt from Brancepeth Castle in Durham and John Piner from Cornish club Tehidy Park also went round in level par but the best round of the day and the only player to better it was under 16 cap Chris Lloyd.

The 15 year old from Bristol returned 71 with three birdies, including the first two holes, and just two dropped shots. His return helped The Kendleshire to joint sixth place on 460.

The last occasion Brokenhurst Manor took the title was 19 years ago in 1988 when they triumphed at Beaconsfield. They now go forward to represent England in the European Champion Club Tournament in Greece in November.

Related Links

• http://www.englishgolfunion.org

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