Junior Organisers Report 2011
2011 has proved to be another excellent year for the Junior Section with many individual and team successes during the course of the year, which I will outline during this report.
RND Juniors have continued to achieve success in National, Regional and County competitions with notably Jimmy Mullen, Ollie Tanton and Anthony Mcgeorge achieving high levels of performance over the course of the year. Both Jimmy and Ollie played in the British Boys Championship with Jimmy reaching the match play stage. In addition he also achieved notable success in the South West Boys Championship, the West of England Stroke play Championship as well as numerous Devon County events including the Boys County Championship, also qualifying for the Daily Telegraph finals to be held in Dubai later this month. All three boys were regular members of the Devon U18 team and represented the county at the EGU Inter Counties Finals at Luffenham Heath in September. Unfortunately an injury to Amelia Daniel suffered in June has meant that she has been unable to compete in either National or Regional competitions after a promising start to the season. We wish her a full recovery and hope that 2012 will be a more positive year for her golf. In addition to these county regulars the club was also represented at this level by Kiaran Tanton, Michael Townshend and Saamantha Found and 7 other juniors were also involved with the Devon Junior Golf Academy during the past year.
In county competitions we achieved our best ever results in the boys championships with Jimmy Mullen winning , Ollie Tanton 2nd and Anthony Mcgeorge 3rd + U16 winner and Bradley Smith winning the handicap event. In the girls championship Helena Standen won the U15 net competition. We also achieved good results in the DCJGS Spring and Autumn Meetings. Amelia Daniel winning the Lloyd Williams Cup and Mackenzie Salver and Bradley Smith the boy’s stableford at Tiverton and Anthony Mcgeorge winning the Ruth Cup, Kiaran Tanton the Innis Trophy and Helena Standen the girl’s stableford at Libbaton. The Order of Merit events also produced excellent results with Ollie Tanton and Kiaran Tanton finishing runners up in the U18 and U14 event s respectively and Anthony Mcgeorge winning the U16 event. Helena Standen won the Girls Order of Merit with Samantha Found placed 3rd.
In team events the section also enjoyed an equally successful year. An improved performance in the Basil Steer Cup saw the team get to the quarter final before losing 2-1 to Honiton, the first time in 4 years we have gone further than the first round. The high point however was regaining the North Devon Junior League title finally winning the trophy at Torrington after a close contest with Portmore GC. 3 individual wins in 6 meetings, Bradley Smith at Ilfracombe, Ethan Sumner at RND and Luke Carter at Torrington topped off an excellent campaign. The team then went on to compete in the Henry Truscott Trophy against Torquay, Thurlestone and Fingle Glen but finished 4th with a score of 162 behind Torquay’s winning score of 175.
Juniors again participated in the EGU skills challenge event which saw 6 juniors qualify for the South West Regional Final at Farrington with Bradley Smith and Helena Standen this year winning their sections.
Junior Section competitions have again been well supported. Those held in the school summer holidays generated the largest entries but excluding these entries have averaged 15. The Junior Open this year attracted 65 entries, the decision to combine this event with our NDJL event generating at least 30 extra entries. Jimmy Mullen won the main prize, with Ethan Sumner winning the Net trophy and Samantha Found the main girl’s prize.
RGB building supplies have recently renewed their 2 year sponsorship deal with the Junior Section and we were also pleased to have supported the club in its redesignation of its Golfmark Award this year on this occasion in the High Achiever Category.
Junior coaching sessions at the weekends continue to be well supported and are a vital ingredient in both the success of our golfers and in the continued effort to attract new young members, as is the link with local primary schools. We hope that the current links forged with Instow and St Margaret’s Primaries will generate further interest in junior membership. I would like to record my thanks to Iain Parker, Mike Wilson and Ross Daniel for all the hard work they do in developing the juniors we have playing at this club.
Finally I would like to thank Alan Vichion, Dale Tanton, Brian Keen, Darren Found, Chris Worthington, Carole Welton and Mark Evans for their continued support with the juniors at RND. All those involved in the club can feel justifiably proud of the junior’s achievements during this year. It is vital for the future of the club that the junior section retains both a large, active and successful membership; something which will only happen with the continued support of parents and adult volunteers therefore any additional support during the golfing year would be very welcome.
Gary Smith Junior Organiser Nov 2011