A talented team of six youngsters, all members of the England ‘A’ Squad, will aim to bridge a six-year gap when they represent England Golf in the annual Costa Ballena Quadrangular Tournament in Spain later this month.
After five successive runners-up finishes, the squad of Oliver
Carr (Heswall,
Cheshire), Seb Crookall-Nixon (Workington,
Cumbria), Paul Kinnear (Formby,
Lancashire), Josh Loughrey (Wrag
Barn, Wiltshire), Callum Shinkwin (Moor
Park, Hertfordshire) and Jordan Smith (Bowood
G&CC, Wiltshire) will aim to go one better at the Costa Ballena Ocean
Golf Club on 25th – 27th January.
Carr, 18, has been capped at under 16 and boys levels while he
was Cheshire Boy Champion in 2010. Last year, when he finished ninth in the
Titleist/FootJoy EGU Boys Order of Merit, he was a quarter finalist in the
British Boys Championship and the Cheshire Match Play Championship and was equal
fourth in the Fairhaven Trophy.
Crookall-Nixon, 18, was the English Under 16 Champion in 2008
and 2009 and has been an under 16 and boy international. In 2011, he finished
fourth in the Brabazon Trophy, winning the George Henriques Salver for the best
performance by a player aged under 20, and finished seventh in the Sir Henry
Cooper Junior Masters and the Tillman Trophy.
Kinnear, 18, is a former Lancashire Boy Champion. He was
capped for the first time in the Boys Home Internationals in Wales last year
while he also represented GB&I in the Jacques Leglise Trophy. In individual
events, he finished tied fifth in the Brabazon Trophy, eighth in the Fairhaven
Trophy and equal ninth in the West of England Stroke Play.
Like Crookall-Nixon, Loughrey, 21, collected an award at last
year’s Brabazon Trophy, the Scrutton Jug for the best aggregate from the
Berkshire and Brabazon Trophies. He enjoyed a number of high finishes including
equal third in the Darwin Salver, fourth in the Duncan Putter and tied fifth in
the Berkshire Trophy. When representing England, he was tied fourth in the
Chiberta Grand Prix and equal sixth in the Biarritz Cup. He was also a member of
the victorious Wiltshire team in the English County Championship.
Shinkwin, 18, (picture © Tom Ward), enjoyed a successful 2010,
becoming English Under 18 Champion, making his England debut in the Boys Home
Internationals and helping Hertfordshire to the Boys County Championship. Last
year, he reached the semi-finals of the English Amateur Championship, finished
tied fourth when defending his under 18 title for the Carris trophy, and was
eighth in the McEvoy Trophy. He also represented GB&I in the Jacques Leglise
Trophy in Spain.
Smith, 19, has been attending Filton College and developed
through their golfing AASE programme. He has won the Intercollegiate Tour
Players Championship for the past two years and is an England Schools
international. He was another member of the Wiltshire County
Championship-winning team at Ganton last year when he also finished fourth in
the Faldo Series Grand Final at Lough Erne.
The last occasion an England team emerged as Costa Ballena
champions was in 2006 while the title was also won in the previous
year.
The Costa Ballena competition is played on a round robin basis
over three days, each match comprising three foursomes and six singles.
