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Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Champion Sam Parsons could not match Croker’s four as he sank his birdie with a 12-foot downhiller with plenty of break, sending the Essex team home jubilant, while the losers had a long journey back to the South Coast.

Croker had seen his ball skid on to the putting surface having caught the top of the bunker guarding the first, as both players made four to take the match down the 18th.

A rueful Rob Wheeler, from North Hants GC, who was part of the first-team that beat Essex a week ago, said: “The contrast with winning the men’s league last weekend – when we denied them the English and South East double – and being beaten like that, could not be greater.

“That really hurts. Hopefully we can all learn from the experience, and it will help our games going forward.”

The old Colts League, which was replaced last year by the Channel League – that has no age restrictions unlike its predecessor – had finished in a 6-6 tie seven times since its inception in 1969, with five of those stalemates coming between 2002 and 2015.

But with plenty of daylight left for once, the traditional October final was decided after each team nominated a player for a sudden-death shoot-out under new rules agreed at last season’s AGM of England Golf’s South Eastern Group.

Hampshire captain Harrison Pake fielded three North Hants players in his eight-man team, who were held 6-6 at Wensum Valley Golf, Hotel & Country Club, near Norwich, including county Order of Merit winner Rob Wheeler, who won the Hampshire Open last month.

Wheeler, who had been pegged back on the last by Croker for a half in the morning foursomes – and then narrowly lost the top singles match 2&1, having been sent out first as normal – could not believe Hampshire’s luck.

He said: “Sam had a six-footer to win on 17 in regulation that slipped by. He needed just a half to win outright and give us the trophy on the 18th.

“His opponent hit his tee shot on to the first hole on Wensum’s other course – but there was no out-of-bounds surprisingly.

“The Essex guy hit his third into the par-five to a matter of inches, while Sam – who hit the perfect drive – was left with a 15-footer for birdie which just missed.”

After Wheeler was beaten, North Hants’ James Atkins triumphed 3&2 against Hobbs thanks to three birdies in the final five holes, but Beeston was given a lesson by Croker, who won 6&5.

Pake had led from the front to win 6&5 against Callum Newsom and when Hodgetts quickly followed in with a 5&4 win over former Essex U14 Champion Louis Vallis, the match was tied at 41/2-41/2 before the real drama unfolded.

Ex-Portsmouth FC Academy player Rich Harris, the 2020 county champion, was three-up with three to play in the anchor match against Zac Taylor, and his Hayling foursomes partner Joe Foster, two-down playing the 17th against Dominic Piccollo, the only survivor from the Essex team that beat Hampshire 7-5 at Mill Hill, 12 months ago.

Pake’s team were gathered by the last two holes as Foster lost 2&1 to take the final into a play-off just as Harris won 3&2.

Hampshire Golf assistant secretary Chris Harrison, who was with the team that won the South East League crown for the second year in a row at Northwood GC last weekend, revealed: “The team discussed at lunchtime who would fancy it, if it went to a play-off.

“Everyone looked at Sam, as our county champion. A couple of the boys, including James, and our captain, said they would do it, but everyone agreed it should be Sam, who had played really well in the foursomes with Harrison.

“The decision had to be confirmed to the organisers after the match had ended in a draw, and we all felt it was still the right decision.

“Sam hit an incredible drive past Charlie’s on the first after losing the toss for the honour, and then saw Croker’s ball bounce on to the green when it could have easily gone in the bunker, before losing to a birdie.

“The rules were changed last year to allow for a play-off in the event of a tie, and it certainly added to the drama and excitement. It was certainly a spectacle at the death.

“I think most of us accept sharing the trophy after a tie is a bit of an anti-climax, but losing the final having played so well is very cruel.

“Hopefully that will motivate everyone to come back and win it next year.”

Full scores can be seen by clicking HERE.

STONEHAM’S two-time Hampshire Junior Champion James Freeman proved to be the hero of the hour claiming the crucial point to get Hampshire over the line in the defence of their South East League crown.

Having been 3-1 down at lunch after the morning foursomes, Essex made a fist of the singles picking up two early wins against Jersey’s Jo Hacker and George Saunders, the former West of England Amateur Champion, who made his name as a Meon Valley junior.

With Hampshire needing just a half from the three remaining three matches left out on the course, and Essex leading in two of them, captain Toby Burden’s men knew the job had still not been done.

Freeman had been two-up after 11 against Ross Dee before losing three out of four holes in a row.

The University of Birmingham PGA graduate was told by county secretary Richard Arnold that a half would secure the trophy as he stood on the 18th tee, one-down.

And he completed his mission with a par good enough to earn Hampshire the Daily Telegraph Salver for the 11th time since 1988 – having failed to reach the final in the first 24 years of the competition’s history. 

Hampshire had given themselves the best possible start to their final against Essex, winning three of the four foursomes matches.

Captain Toby Burden, from Hayling GC, had spoken about the fact that his squad were so unified in their approach and goals, bolstered by the fact that they knew each other’s games so well, a key factor in foursomes. 

He had sent out reigning county Order of Merit champion Robert Wheeler, who won the Hampshire Open last month, just three days after finishing runner-up in the Courage Trophy, to play with Freeman, the 2022 Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Champion 

Wheeler and his partner had been three-up at the turn, making three birdies between them. But they lost the ninth as Essex’s Baille Curran, fresh from last week’s very narrow English County Finals win, and Ross Dee rolled in a 40-footer on the 11th.

They then made birdies at the 15th and 17th to go one-up with one to play. With Hampshire looking good for a birdie from 15 feet on the last, they then rolled in a 35-footer for a three of their own to put Essex’s only point on the board before lunch – and prevent a whitewash.

Burden and Hacker beat Essex veteran Andy May, who like Dee played in the 2012 defeat by 71/2-41/2 when England’s youngest-every amateur champion Harry Ellis was in the team that won at Middlesex’s Ashford Manor.

That first point from match two was quickly followed by Rowland’s Castle’s Tom Robson – playing with Brokenhurst Manor’s Martin Young, playing in his 10th final since 1999, who won 5&4 against Charlie Croker and Toby Peters.

Former England U16 cap George Saunders, from Liphook GC, teamed up with Stoneham’s Ryan Henley, playing in his seventh final since 2000, to beat Essex’s Ben Humphrey and Will Dunn 3&2.

Essex had led 31/2-½ when they beat Hampshire in 2018, but only by the narrowest margins so Burden’s teamtalk at lunch was aimed at preventing complacency and the dangers of a fightback by the English champions.

Indeed, Hacker and Saunders were both beaten on the 17th, before Wheeler, Robson and Henley converted some healthy blue colour on the leaderboard into confirmed full points to make it 5-3.

Robson, who had been recalled having played in the 10-2 victory over Sussex in the New Forest in June, but then missed the draw with Surrey at Hindhead in August, kept up his remarkable scoring average, holing a 50-footer to complete a 3&2 win over McQueen.

The director of golf at Basingstoke GC has dropped just half a point in his three final appearances, having missed the 2009 one as county champion because he had just begun a four-year golf scholarship in the States, playing for Jacksonville State, and again three years later.

With Young having lost only one of his eight previous singles matches in the final, wisely put out last in case of any dramatic Essex fightback, Hampshire were in good hands while Burden and Young were left out on the course.

But luckily the 2023 winners had enough in the tank to complete a three-point winning margin, while Essex could point to the fact that five of their English Championship winning team had missed the final.

Two were back at college in the States, while Harley Smith, the reigning English Amateur Champion, was unavailable along with former English Amateur Champion Zach Chegwidden, who turned pro. England U16 cap Charlie Rushbridge was playing against Ireland. 

Smith was only the second player to win the McGregory (U16) and Carris (U18) English junior titles after Justin Rose, who played in the 1996 final between Hampshire and Essex, and has already won on the Clutch Pro Tour as an amateur.

Hampshire were without their two US college players – England and Great Britain and Ireland international Charlie Forster, from Basingstoke GC, and Stoneham’s Joe Buenfeld, who both played in the team that finished runners-up to Essex in the South East Qualifier, in July, at Brighton’s Devil’s Dyke GC.

Full results can be found HERE. 

Report By Andrew Griffin

LIPHOOK’S quest for a first victory in the Hampshire Sevens will have to enter the competition’s 60th anniversary next year after the trophy was snatched from their hands by a 14-year-old “assassin” from the Channel Islands.

Eleven-handicapper Aiden Wilson has been the star of Royal Jersey’s run to the final, winning four of his five matches.

And the Channel Island kid slammed the door shut in the face of Liphook’s Trevor Finlay – who had shown his own mettle by coming back from three-down with four to play – winning three holes in a row to leave the match all-square going down 18 at Rowlands Castle.

Wilson, who isn’t even tall for his age, could not reach the green in two, with the gusting 20mph hurting the uphill approach in front of the clubhouse as the second of the seven matches reached its conclusion.

But with a shot in hand, the teenager played his third from short of the green to the back left, resting pin high, and then nervelessly sank his 10-footer for a nett birdie to kill the tie – and send the watching Royal Jersey players and supporters into an ecstatic celebration.

Wilson, who was getting six shots from Finlay, was lifted into the air by one of his team-mates, while the rest rushed to congratulate him, with LIphook left crestfallen.

Just half-an-hour earlier, the live scoring app was telling everyone that the East Hampshire team were heading to win the Inter-Club Knockout for the first time since the Sevens creation in 1966.

It seemed that the late Hampshire Golf secretary and president Keith Maplesden, who was a Liphook member for more than 30 years until his sudden death last summer, was guiding the putts into the hole from his customary seat in the heavenly 19th.

John Groombridge held a narrow lead in the top match, but he too was outdone on the last as his 30-foot putt down the sloping green swung away to the right, leaving Philip Grehan a simple five-footer for his par and a one-hole win.

Lower down the order, Hamish Rushin had put the first point on the board for Liphook, winning 8&7 against Royal Jersey’s Paul Le Rougetel in the fourth game out.

But Jersey’s Jason Byrne and Chris Huelin gave the Channel Island champions a 2-1 lead by beating Liphook’s Richard Lushington and Chris Penn by 4&3 and 7&5 respectively.

With Jersey’s Grehan and Wilson then delivering the hammer blow in a matter of minutes, the last two matches played on to their conclusion.

It meant Royal Jersey had claimed the Hampshire Sevens for a fourth time in the competition’s 59-year history – and their first since 2013 when they beat Hockley in the pouring rain at Weybrook Park.

Only Aldershot’s Army GC – the first-ever winners in 1966 – with five wins in total, and Rowlands Castle, who have a record six victories, have been more successful in Hampshire Golf’s Inter-Club Knockout.

Captain Dan Burchell could not believe how his team had turned the final around in the space of 20 minutes with the trophy looking like it was heading up the A3 to Liphook for much of the afternoon.

He said: “I am on cloud nine. Aiden winning his fifth match out of six this season in that fashion on the last green, making a putt to win his point and seal the Sevens title like that. You couldn’t make it up.

“For someone who is still only 14, he showed brilliant fight against a guy off five. He was getting five shots but he handled the occasion very well, none more than on the 18th green.“

And he paid tribute to the older heads in the team who all delivered keys points at some stage on the road to Rowlands.

Dan added: “These are players that might not play together very often, especially with a large age gap. But they really came together and made an effort in the build-up, to play more as a group and they deserve a lot of credit for that.

"You could see that team spirit shine through on finals day and it played a key part of our overall success.

"I must add that it was not just the team selected for finals day. There were plenty of other players who were part of winning sides in the prior rounds and that's what is so special.

"This is the most prestigious competition to win in Hampshire club golf and the fact we are mentioned among the most successful sides in the history of the event is something we are very proud of.

Looking back at it all, we had to win seven matches in succession and six of those fixtures were away," said Burchell.

"That's no mean feat and needed a full squad effort. We had a really good balance across the team.

"Given the fact we are offshore, we don't play these courses as much as other clubs, so going over to an unfamiliar environment and winning is far from easy."

Sevens captain James Chapman had put himself out last in the anchor role and was never threatened by Royal Jersey’s captain-elect Matthew Hague, having been three-up after six, and going four-up on the 14th when the decisive putt was dropping a few hundred yards away.

James, who sat out the morning semi-final, said: “I heard the roar when those two putts went in, but at that point, I had no idea if that was us holing an important putt or them.

“I got to the turn when I was three-up and was just focusing on my game. I quite like the pressure of having something resting on my game in the Sevens, and play better normally.

“And if things are going well, there’s no stress if we already have four points. Steven Schorar, who played in the morning semi-final win, was nominated to give advice to our players.

“He came over and said things were going well, but no more detail, so knowing I was three-up, I felt quite relaxed.

“Obviously, it turned out that the top matches swung their way, and in the end we came up just a bit short.

“I am really proud of the team,” added Chapman, who took over the captaincy from Groombridge 10 years ago after Liphook lost in the semi-finals to rivals Old Thorns.

“I played when we reached the 2004 finals. I was 16, so I have played a lot of Sevens golf. The team did brilliantly to reach the final – the home advantage in our four matches helped.

“But getting to the last four is an achievement in itself. The handicaps mean you can’t pick our club’s strongest players – like Darren Walkley and Conor Richards, who have played for Hampshire. They could end up giving a dozen shots or more.

“We have had a settled side with a good spread of handicaps from five to 15, and everyone has played their part, said James, who brought in Chris Penn, off eight, and 14-handicapper Mellstrom into the team for the final, as David Story (9) and Abraham sat out.

“I would like to do it again – maybe a 10th time as captain will finally see us triumph,” said the captain, who could still manage a smile despite the pain of defeat.

Indeed, Old Thorns reached the semis in 2013 and came back to win it two years in a row – only two clubs had defended the County Sevens before.

To view all of the match results from the Finals Day click HERE