The County Captain, Ali James fielded what he considered was a strong Wiltshire side to face Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Gloucester in the South West Counties Golf Association Championship at Broadstone on 9th June. Choosing not to play himself so that he could encourage the players on the course, Ali can not be faulted for his selections. The team of Ben Loughrey (Wrag Barn), Miles Mackman and Tom Burley (Broome Manor), Sam Matton (Bowood), Matt Swales (Cumberwell Park) and 17 year old Ben Stow from Rushmore produced some fantastic golf with the combined morning and afternoon scores for the 6 players a total of only 1 over par.

The team Wiltshire scores were just too good for the other counties though. An aggregate score for the 6 man team with morning and afternoon scores counting was 841, only 1 over par and beating the nearest challengers, Cornwall by 11 shots...a very convincing margin.

The winning team: from left, Ben Stow, Sam Matton, Ben Loughrey, Captain Ali James, Matt Swales, Miles Mackman, Tom Burley.

Leading the way for Wilsthire was Ben Loughrey. A morning round of 4 under par 66 was followed by a 1 under 69 in the afternoon finishing just 1 shot behind the individual winner and Ben's playing partner, Phil White from Somerset, who birdied the last 3 holes to snatch the crown. Ben's score was the best of the Youths though and secured him that title.

The Scores of the Wiltshire Players were as follows:

As winners of the qualifier, Wiltshire will go on to the EGU County Finals in September, to be played at Chipping Sodbury GC. There they will face the representatives of the North, Midlands and South in a round robin matchplay series to determine the English Champion County.
Never having qualified in the history of Wiltshire golf from foundation in 1924 Wiltshire have now made it a hat trick of wins in 2007, 2008 and now 2009.
Congratulations to Ali and the team on a fantastic achievement.

Full results of the 6 man Team Strokeplay Championship are here.
and results of all the individual players is here.

In the Matchplay series, Wiltshire recovered from a poor start to finish second. A summary of the results is below and the full results are here. nb, this is an Excel file and may take some time to download.