BRANXTON golfer Corey Lamb may have taken out the individual honours at last week's NSW Junior Championships, but it was Newcastle that claimed the state inter-district teams title.
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Joshuaa Robards (Newcastle), Harry Cleare (Nelson Bay), Hamish Ellison (Belmont) and Kiana Toole (Belmont) combined forces for Newcastle and got the job done across the opening two days of competition at Belmont and Charlestown.
Newcastle finished ahead of runner-up Hunter, who were spearheaded by overall boy's champion Lamb and also well represented by Joshua Fuller (Muswellbrook), Harry Atkinson (Kurri Kurri) and Jasmine Vesper (Singleton).
The best three scratch scores from each team were counted on Tuesday and Wednesday. The tournament wrapped up on Friday.
"It was a pretty good week for us across the board," Jack Newton Junior Golf's Northern NSW manager Mark Ingrey said. "They all performed really well in challenging conditions."
Lamb's back-to-back rounds of 67 put Hunter in a strong position and he was supported by Fuller (72, 72), Atkinson (81, 86) and Vesper (87, 84). However, Newcastle reigned supreme with consistent performances from Robards (70, 70), Ellison (72, 77), Cleare (74, 73) and Toole (85, 81).
On solo scores Robards ended up fourth overall at even par, nine behind winner Lamb, and on top of the leaderboard in the boy's 16 years division. Age group success was also experienced by Toronto's Jacob Dundas, six in front of Ellison, in the boy's 15 years category and Toronto's Jake Riley in the boy's 13 years section.
Toole and Vesper were 36th and 37th respectively in the overall girl's charts.
* INGREY was full of praise for host clubs Belmont and Charlestown after a second straight year in charge of the NSW Junior Championships.
He said members, staff, volunteers and the courses themselves were "unbelievable". Venues, rotated every third season, have yet to be locked in for 2020 and 2021 but would be announced in the coming months.
* CHARLESTOWN'S Blake Windred was tied 21st at the Players Amateur in the US, finishing 10 under after a last-round 69 at Berkeley Hall on Monday (AEST). His opening 65 was the highlight. He went 69 and 75 on days two and three respectively.
* ANDREW Dodt continued his return from a back injury at the Redcliffe Pro-Am in Queensland on Monday, finishing tied 28th at two over. Last week he was tied 14th at six under in the two-round Maroochy River Pro-Am.
* TORONTO'S Jye Forrester claimed his first trainee tournament last week, firing a five-under 65 to win the $4000 Acor Consultancy Pro-Am at Richmond. He was also tied second at Eastlake last month.
* THE Viney Creek Cup, the next Newcastle district order of merit event, will be held at Beresfield on Saturday. Hunter's Merriwa Open follows on Sunday.
* REPRESENTATIVE teams for next weekend's clash between Newcastle and Hunter have been named.
Newcastle: David Alexander, Chris Turnbull, Greg McMillan, Luke Ferrier, Mick Coutman, Ben Hillard (seniors); Brij Ingrey, Jake Riley, Hamish Ellison, Caleb Bromley, Jacob Dundas, Harry Cleare (juniors).
Hunter: Luke Waters, Josh Knott, Blake Palmer, Clayton Small, Hayden Gulliver, Cameron Walton (seniors); Corey Lamb, Harry Atkinson, Bowen Small, Mitchell Bodycote, Angus McMahon, Ethan Van Zyl (juniors).
Competition takes place at the newly redeveloped Scone course on July 27 and 28.
