Yesterday Strathmore Juniors surpassed themselves yet again.

In the morning Hannah Robb represented the section in the Gibb Trophy, Perth and Kinross County's Handicap Championship, but unfortunately lost her semi-final to the eventual winner. Remembering that Hannah has only been playing golf for less than 2 years this is a tremendous achievement.
In the afternoon the Juniors were represented by Brad Bannerman (18) Michael Brodie (20) Josh McKenna (23) John McKenna (24) and Frankie Moran (26) and played in Perth and Kinross Junior Bell Trophy in the first leg away to King James VI. This is a mixed 5 singles Match play knock out event where Category A players are not permitted , only players with handicaps between 6 and 28 boys and 6 and 36 girls are eligible. As the County already have a mixed Scratch League this is to encourage clubs who do not either have enough low handicap players or have enough junior members to accommodate both Scratch and Handicap teams. Rob Blackburn welcomed our team , 4 of whom had never played match play before. Rob and myself exchanged team sheets and as this must be played in strict handicap order we worked out the differentials for our teams. King James had put out a very strong team with handicaps of 6,7,13,16 and19. We wished our teams all the best and off they went.
Things were looking bad when we were up in only one match. Josh was 4 down at the turn and I waited for John who was 2 down to walk a couple of holes. John playing very well turned it around and went ahead in his match, I had spoken to Michael who by this time was well ahead in his match and Frankie who had also come back and had gone ahead in his tie. Brad Bannerman was 2 down when I caught up with him and by time I got back to Josh he had got his match back to 1 down playing 16, where he had a shot. As Josh walked off the 16 green all square he took time to reminded me again his opponent was in 4th year and he was only in 1st year! Both missed the 17th green and as Josh was the first to play he lined up his shot over the bunker to a tight front pin position taking a full swing with a wedge he floated the ball into the air landing it softly onto the green and running it up to a couple of feet to win the hole and go ahead. After two excellent drives Josh hit a good 2nd but his opponent unfortunately hit his 2nd shot out of bounds. Josh knowing he also had a shot on the hole turned to me and said " I don't want to win like this" remembering Josh only turned 13 this week what a statement for a young lad to make.
The final result was King James VI 2 Strathmore 3 with the return leg taking place on Sunday 24th May. I would like to thank all the boys for their efforts and sportsmanship and Brad for his speech which his teammates elected him ( in his absence) to do.
Thanks also to all the parents for getting the team to and from Perth and to Jackie , Frank and Ron who also stayed to assist.
On returning to Strathmore I met Allan Easton and Grant Martin who although the Gents Scratch team had lost 3-2 both boys had won their matches convincingly.