TALENTED TEENAGERS OFF TO SOUTH AFRICA IN NEW YEAR - 5th Dec 2006

Six members of the Under 18 squad - two of them still 15 - have been selected to represent England in a quadrangular match against Canada, Holland and the hosts in South Africa in January.

Those selected are Tommy Fleetwood from Lancashire, Surrey’s Billy Fowles, Jack Hiluta from Essex, BB&O’s Eddie Pepperell, Northumberland-based Garrick Porteous and Darren Renwick from Sussex.

They will compete against youngsters from the other three nations at Zebula Country Club, 90 minutes drive north of Pretoria, on 15th - 17th January.

Fleetwood, 15, has been capped at under 16 level for the past two years after finishing runner-up in the McGregor Trophy in 2005. He was also a member of one of the winning England teams that shared the Nations Cup in this year’s McGregor Trophy, finished third in the North of England Boys Championship and helped Lancashire win the Boys County Championship at Pannal last August.

Fowles, 17, was in the Surrey team at Pannal having been the individual winner in the South East Qualifying and he also played for the Surrey in the Men’s County Finals at Prince’s in September. Fowles also reached the quarter finals of the British Boys Championship at Royal Aberdeen and made his debut for England in the Boys Home Internationals at Moray.

Hiluta, 17, also made his debut in the Boys Home Internationals, having already been capped at under 16 level last year when he also represented Essex in the Boys County Finals. The Chelmsford lad tied sixth in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters and helped Chelmsford to fourth place in the English Champion Club Tournament.

Pepperell, 15, was last year’s English Under 14 champion who finished runner-up in this year’s Under 16 Championship. Another to make his debut in the Boys Home Internationals, Pepperell represented the EGU in the German Junior Masters in Heidelberg and was a member of the England team in the recent under 16 international against Scotland.

Porteous, 16, earned his first England honours this autumn when he was a team-mate of Pepperell’s against Scotland and he was also a member of the North of England side that faced the Scots in their annual under 16 encounter. Earlier, he reached the third round of the British Boys Championship at Royal Aberdeen.

Renwick, 16, has been an under 16 cap for the past three years after making his debut against Scotland at Woodhall Spa in 2004. Last year, the lad from Sussex won the Scottish Under 16 Championship as well as the Douglas Johns Trophy and finished third in the South East Junior Championship. This year, he finished fourth in the McGregor Trophy (the Under 16 Championship) and was a member of one of the victorious English teams that shared the title in that event.

The competition at Zebula will be played on a round robin basis, but each match will comprise just six 18-hole singles matches because of the heat expected in southern Africa at that time of the year.

England Team:
Tommy Fleetwood (Formby Hall)
Billy Fowles (Wentworth)
Jack Hiluta (Chelmsford)
Eddie Pepperell (Frilford Heath)
Garrick Porteous (Bamburgh Castle)
Darren Renwick (Worthing)

Related Links

• http://www.englishgolfunion.org

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