I would like to wish all Juniors and Organisers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and the best of golfing fortune in 2011. The highlights of 2011 include The British Girl's Championship and Home Internationals at Gullane and The Scottish Boys' Championships at Dunbar. All Junior Events of possible interest for next year will be found at our "Events" section - make sure you don't miss out on anything! Get your entries in early.
Now the snow has appeared again it is unlikely that any of us will get any golf over the holiday period, so the next best thing might be to watch the Daily Telegraph Abu Dhabi Junior Championships on TV. This programme is aired 5 times on Sky on 22nd and 23rd December and you can get these Channels and times by searching for Abu Dhabi Junior Golf at this site:- http://tv.sky.com/tvlistingsI have prepared a report of the golfing accomplishments of our Teams and Individual Juniors for 2010. This can be seen by clicking on "read more" below. Well done to you all.
Dave Warren, ELJGL Secretary.
East Lothian Junior Golf League - Review of 2010
The East Lothian Junior golf year year started in fantastic style when Craigielaw, at the 3rd time of trying, finally won the Junior Home Nations Championship in Spain. Grant Forrest won the 54 hole aggregate scratch prize, and probably set an all time record in being undefeated in 9 head to head matches in 3 finals. Dougie Maxwell won the prize for the lowest scratch round. A substantial amount of TV coverage of that Final Team were also later presented with the "Team Of The Year" award at the East Lothian Celebrating Sports Awards.
Also at club level, Gullane were narrowly defeated by Orkney Golf Club
In the County’s 3 main Team events in 2010, the League title, the format being 6-a-side matchplay, was won by a strong Tantallon team for the 2nd time in 3 years, and for the 4th time in the 35 year history of the event. Craigielaw were a close 2nd and Haddington were 3rd. Both Tantallon and Craigielaw therefore qualified for the Junior Home Nations Scottish Final at Spey Valley in October, where Tantallon were 2nd (by 1 stroke to Liberton) and Craigielaw were 3rd. In 2011 there is a distinct possibility that East Lothian will be able to send a select Girls Team to the UK finals, subject to sufficient funding becoming available.
Congratulations also go to the 4 man Tantallon team for winning the Strokeplay Team event at Dunbar, followed closely by Longniddry. Gullane’s Team won the handicap prize at the same event, and Anthony Blaney’s 69 gross was one of the best rounds of the year.
Congratulations also go to the 4 man Haddington team who won the recent County Cup at Gullane, beating Longniddry in the final. There was added spice in this match as the Haddington Convenor is Jim Simpson, whose son Stevie is the Longniddry Convenor.
The League would like to thank the Clubs who hosted the 3 major County events – these were Dunbar, Gullane and Royal Musselburgh. All three courses were in superb condition and all made the players very welcome. In 2011 these three major Junior County events are to be played at Winterfield, Musselburgh Old and Longniddry.
There were many age group winners at the EL Championships this year at Royal Musselburgh, and these are all on the website. Euan Bowden with 138, and Clara Young with a 78, lifted the scratch trophies and are our County Champions. Prizes were won by 26 players out of the field of 84, a record attendance. The website contains all these details. East Lothian Council continued to generously sponsor the event, and it is hoped that this relationship will continue. The League has received this accolade from Councillor Paul McLennan - "East Lothian is blessed by many fine golfers and really appreciate the work of the ELJGL in supporting development of golf in East Lothian.”
There have been many notable performances by individuals this year, and most, if not all, of these, are on the website. Pride of place must go equally to Craigielaw’s Grant Forrest for winning his 2nd National title, the Scottish Boys’ Championship at West Kilbride and to Gullane Ladies’ Lesley Atkins for winning her 1st National title, the Scottish Girls’ Championship at Eyemouth. East Lothian member Rachel Watton led the qualifiers by a staggering 11 strokes and Craigielaw’s Gabrielle MacDonald reached the semi-final. All 4 players then went on to represent Scotland with distinction in their respective Home Internationals. Grant also went on to represent GB&I against Europe in Milan and he finished 5th in the Egyptian Amateur.
A five minute resume of the 2010 Scottish Boys Final can be viewed
Other performances of note by East Lothian players include, and in no particular order:- Clara Young in the Scottish Girls’ Golf Academy U16s Winter Series finished 3rd, Lachlan Imrie was 2nd in the Paul Lawrie Jug at Newmachar, Charlotte Munro was 1st and Greg Lovenlock 2nd in the Clubgolf Scottish Junior Masters at Renaissance, in which Gullane had 4 qualifiers. Fraser Thain made the cut in the British Boys’ Championship at Kilmarnock, and Lesley Atkins did the same in the British Girls’ at Royal Belfast, but both were defeated in the early matchplay stages. Lesley was 2nd and Clara 3rd in the Faldo Series Scottish Championship at The Roxburghe after which Lesley then finished 4th in the U16s Grand Final at Lough Erne in Ireland. A recent EL Junior, Neil Henderson, won the Boys’ Faldo Series at The Roxburghe with a gross 142 but could not compete in the Grand Final due to College commitments in the USA. Clara was 2nd in the Scottish Girls U14 event at Auchterarder with a gross 70. Both Clara and Keren Ward represented East Lothian Ladies’ in Inter-County events. Grant with a gross 282 for 72 holes, lost in a play off in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters in Kent. Grant is now ranked at 773 in the R&A world rankings, higher than former EL Juniors Neil Henderson, Mark Hillson and Alexander Culverwell see - http://wagr.randa.org/ Mark made the cut in the British Amateur at Muirfield and North Berwick, but Alexander and Neil just missed out. Fraser, Danny Kay and Greg Smail all made the cut in the Scottish Youths Championship at Monifeith and had respectable finishes. The re-arranged Scottish Junior Champion of Championship event from 2009 was played over the Dukes Course at St Andrews in March. The Boys' winner with a 72 was Craigielaw’s Simon Fairburn beating Grant who scored 73. Simon also defeated Anthony Blaney by one hole in the final of the Lothians Boys’ Championship. Fraser and Craigielaw’s Ewen Donaldson were the defeated semi-finalists. All four boys are linked with East Lothian Clubs, and the event was sponsored by Neil’s father Ian through the North Berwick based business Golf Finance. The Lothians Team including Anthony, Fraser and Grant, were in the winning Team in the Scottish Boys Area Team Championship at Peebles, perhaps owing their success to valuable coaching input from ex-tour Professional Dean Robertson. The Final of the Ladies’ North Berwick Club Championships was contested by Juniors Clara and Keren. Clara emerged as the winner with some excellent golf. Alasdair Simpson, also still a Junior, defeated Nick Peoples in the Mens event, winning by one hole after an excellent 36 hole match of low scoring. Calum Hill, aged 14, reached the final of the Tantallon Club Championship where he lost by 3&2 to recent Junior Shaun Gordon. In the US Kids’ Golf Gullane’s Duncan McLean finished tied 4th in the Boys 14 group, just 2 shots behind the winner. Stephen Neilson, a recent Junior at Dunbar Golf Club, had a wonderful run in the Scottish Amateur by reaching the semi-final where he lost narrowly to the eventual winner. Oliver Huish reached a +1 handicap and has now turned Professional. However, pride of place for our recent Juniors must go to the Saltman brothers Lloyd and Elliot, formerly of Craigielaw but now linked to Archerfield Golf Club, who have both just have gained cards at the Qualifying School for the European Tour. Grant Forrest has announced his intention to take up the offer of a golf scholarship at San Diego University. Apologies if I have missed off any other notable results. We wish all our recent Juniors moving on a lifetime of enjoyable golf in the future, whether as Professionals or Amateurs.
A Coaching programme for Boys has again been in place this year, funded by Procladd Scotland Ltd. and was expertly delivered by John Sandilands the Professional at Haddington Golf Club. A search for funding for 2011 for coaching for Boys and Girls has resulted in a grant from The Golf Foundation and clubgolf but additional funding required will be discussed at the AGM.
In County Matches this year, much experience was gained in the Boys’ matches against Loretto at Dunbar, where East Lothian lost 3.5 to 2.5, and against Edinburgh at Baberton, where East Lothian lost 6 to 4. An East Lothian Boys v. Girls match was also played which resulted in a convincing win for the Girls.
Ric Foulner the Tantallon Junior Convenor puts in a huge amount of work in arranging both the County Matches and the Coaching as does Lesley Nicholson, Captain of this years Scottish Ladies Team in the Womens’ World Amateur Championship, in East Lothian Girls’ golf.
Even experienced players can be unsure as to the rules of golf and etiquette and there are always a few mistakes made every year in our Junior events which result in penalties being incurred. Players should view the pictorial explanations of the rules and test their knowledge by undertaking the quizzes which appear on the R&A website.
The website, expertly maintained by Webmaster Keith Young, continues to grow and now contains an exhaustive list of Junior fixtures, totalling around 170 this year. Some items have had almost 2000 hits since being published.
The website is also used by Kate Green, ELC Junior Golf Development Coordinator to promote “clubgolf” and other events. Kate and the “clubgolf” staff and volunteers work with the U12s age group, and current and future successes is the source of most of any future success for our Clubs and for the County. The website is also used to promote EL Secondary Schools League matches and congratulations are due to Preston Lodge for winning the 09/10 League.
I would also like to thank all Convenors for their support throughout the Season, particularly Harry Bentley, Dougie Denholm, Nicky Black, Andrew Needen, and Willie Rodgers for assisting in running our major events. A special thanks to Willie - he will be stepping down as Convenor at Royal Musselburgh after 25 years!
So, as we move into 2011, the future for Junior Golf in East Lothian looks very healthy indeed, but there is much more work to be done! The County will host both the Scottish Boys’ Championship at Dunbar and The British Girls Championship and Girls’ Home International Matches at Gullane so our players will hopefully put their local knowledge into place. Good luck to all our young players.
David Warren, Secretary and Treasurer, ELJGL.19/12/2010 | 
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