Golf’s Senior County Finals

Having been crowned champions at the third time of asking, Kent will be eager to hold on to the title when the English Seniors County Finals rolls back into action next week.

The Championship will take place at the Trentham Golf Club in Staffordshire on the 7th to 9th October and Kent will be facing strong opposition from two previous champions, Cheshire and Devon. Shropshire and Herefordshire are also likely to be in the running for honours after finishing third and fourth in 2007’s finals competition.

The Seniors County Championship was successfully launched in 2005 at Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire and is becoming ever more popular with the golfers over 55. Cheshire were crowned the first national champions and they retained the title in 2006 at Torksey in Lincoln. Kent finished runners-up on both occasions, but they emerged winners a year ago at Rotherham.

Kent have been dominating in seniors golf in the south east over the past three years and their line-up includes four senior internationals. Dave Jessup, Howard Moxon, Chris Reynolds and Sam Smale will all be featuring for the Garden of England, with Jessup having made his senior international bow at the Seniors Home Internationals at Tenby.

Cheshire have also picked a strong squad, with six of their eight-man team being internationals. Gordon Broster, Philip Slater and Roy Smethurst have worn the England colours while Stephen Baker and George Payne have represented Scotland and there's Philip Jones from Wales. Smethurst is perhaps the pick of the bunch with four English Seniors Championships, one European Seniors and one British Seniors title to his name, as well as eight Cheshire senior titles including this year.

Devon will be playing in their third Seniors County Finals, and field five members of last year’s side including Jon Gynne, a former Devon Seniors Champion, the current champion Tony Stanton and Brian Winteridge, a past South West Seniors winner.

Shropshire & Herefordshire, the winners of the Midlands region, will also boast three international players in England’s Anthony Smith and Welsh caps Basil Griffiths and Mike Rooke. Griffiths is also the reigning Italian Seniors Amateur Champion and could prove pivotal for the Midlanders challenge.

The Finals are contested on a round robin basis, each match consisting of three foursomes and six singles. In the first round of matches on 6th October, Devon meet Kent and Cheshire will play Shropshire & Herefordshire.

Full details, scores and news for the English Seniors County Finals are available on the English Golf Union’s website, www.englishgolfunion.org.

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