Andy Sullivan has two titles to his name from 2004 – the Warwickshire Schools and then the Midland Schools as well as being the leading player from the Junior County 10. Rob Browning was Junior of Merit Champion though because of consistency throughout the season at the highest level.

The County has another Midland champion, Chris Doughill, who won the Midland Boys U16s. The U15s Championship was retained by Jack Sant and Jack has made his place in the County Junior team a virtual certainty. Ben Stafford also retained his Warwickshire title, the Boys and U21s Matchplay The Schools U11s was won by Nathan Ray. There was another double champion though, Dale Marson from Rugby, who took the Boys and U21s with some superb play at Harborne.

The U21s includes one golfer with England recognition. Chris Evans continues to work as hard as anyone could at becoming the best golfer he can and has been selected for an EGU squad. He enjoys being No 10 in the 1st Team singles line-up and is a player that other Counties fear. There are three Warwickshire Golfers over at University in the US and it will be interesting to see how this education develops their games.

Andy Kearns took over as 1st Team Captain in 2004. There will be a feature interview with Andy on this site for New Year’s Day in which Andy goes ‘behind the scenes’ of Team Warwickshire, the structure and management that Andy has set up, along with his team. Team Warwickshire is all about attention to detail. Preparation is everything and all the work done is paying off with a Midland League title. Andy will say 9in his interview) that there is more to come –

That victorious 1st team included many of the people mentioned beforehand. There were the most valuable contributions from the players who did not win Championships but added points to the match scores which gave Warwickshire that win. One player from this group did win a team trophy, the Bainbridge Shield, and that was David Hayes. His father will take over from John Stubbings as Secretary of the Union, subject to the vote of the clubs!

At Senior level, John Mayell is still working to overcome his injury problems and he was not able to retain his Midland title.

That leaves two players whose success came at individual and team level. In a terrible Summer storm, Rob Steele became Midland Amateur Champion. Rob was always part of the 1st Team and continues to develop as a golfer, to such an extent that he is another Warwickshire player who is part of the EGU squad system. There were no Warwickshire triumphs, although Rob came very close, and he will surely win at County, at Regional and at National level very soon.

Our Golfer of the Year is the holder of the Warwickshire Amateur, the Warwickshire Matchplay, the TP Cooke Salver and so nearly the Warwickshire Open (trouble at a par 5 and the redoubtable Captain of the Warwickshire PGA Craig Phillips prevented the unique treble of Amateur, Matchplay and Open titles).

Matt Cryer has one of the lowest handicaps in the Country, the sort of level that Gary Wolstenholme inhabits. Matt has to step onto the 1st tee looking at a par of now more than perhaps 68 if he is to play to ‘the mark’. Matt’s talents have been recognised, not perhaps in our opinion as highly as they should be. He is devoted to making his game that of professional standard and now includes postural and specialised fitness training in his preparations. Matt must be very close to being added to the Walker Cup squad for 2005. He may need a few high placings in National competitions to become part of the squad but year on year Matt gets better and better.

Reserved in the company of people he doesn’t know, Matt was selected to represent England in the Czech Amateur in late Summer. He found himself where he definitely wanted to be – leader and then eventually the winner of this 72 hole competition. Matt dealt with all the pressures and the media and official interest as he won the individual title and England the team event. His conduct was such that the President of the EGU made special mention of Matt at the Warwickshire Annual Dinner. For this, his three Warwickshire Championships, and his success in the British Amateur where he reached the later stages, Matt Cryer is our Player of the year.