England defend seniors title at

Fairhaven next week

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE ENGLISH GOLF UNION
England will field four members of their title-winning line-up when they defend the European senior men’s amateur team championship at Fairhaven Golf Club, Lancashire, next week (August 31 to September 4).
Doug Arnold (Copthorne, Sussex), Andrew Carman (Coventry, Warwickshire), Chris Reynolds (Littlestone, Kent) and Philip Slater (Sandiway, Cheshire) were all members of the side that won the title for the first time in Ascona, Switzerland, a year ago.
They will be joined by Dave Jessup (Rochester & Cobham, Kent) and Alan Squires (Oldham, Lancashire), who have both been capped at seniors level before, in a strong side that will need to be on top form to retain the trophy against previous winners Ireland and Scotland and the 16 teams from continental Europe.

Arnold, four times English Seniors Champion, has represented England in every European Seniors Championship since its inception in 2006, while Carman, a senior for only two years, was Midland Seniors Champion last year and played in the Seniors Home Internationals.

Reynolds, the 2009 English Seniors Champion, finished runner-up this year, as he did in 2007. He made his debut in the 2006 Seniors Home Internationals and has played in every event since, while Slater, tied third in this year’s English Seniors, has been called up by England for the last two European Seniors and the last two Seniors Home Internationals.

Jessup, a former world speedway champion, earned his first England seniors cap in the 2008 Home Internationals and, like Reynolds, was a member of last year’s Kent team that won the Seniors County Championship. This year, Jessup has finished tied third with Slater in the English Seniors and was runner-up in the Scottish Open Seniors.

Squires ended a long wait for the English Seniors title when he won at Carlisle in June, having finished second and third previously. He has represented England five times in the Seniors Home Internationals, three times in the European Seniors Team Championships, and finished runner-up in the Lancashire Seniors Championship this year,

The 114 players from the 19 teams in the European Seniors will compete in 36 holes of stroke play qualifying over the first two days with the best five scores from each team of six to count. The leading eight teams will form the top flight, the next eight the second flight, and so on, for the match play knockout stage.

The Championship starts at 7.30am next Tuesday (August 31) and admission is free. For those unable to attend, live scoring and news updates will available on the Championships Section of the EGU website, www.englishgolfunion.org.