2:25pm Thursday 5th April 2007
By Dick Marshall
Thorpe Hall's outstanding youngster Matthew Southgate was the star of the Essex qualifying competition for the Keating Trophy.
The event is designed to allow the best amateur golfers in Essex the chance to show their skills to the selectors early in the season.
Ninety contenders teed off at Orsett for two rounds of strokeplay hoping to qualify for the matchplay contests being staged at the same venue over the Easter weekend.
At the end of the first round the joint leaders were Basildon's Ben Tobin and Alex Finigan (Upminster).
The best round of the day came in the afternoon from Southgate, who eventually finished in the overall pole position.
That gave him the right to the number one seeding position and he will start the matchplay on Saturday against the player filling 16th place in the qualifiers, James Court (Thorndon Park).
Southgate - son of well known Thorpe golfer Ian - Tobin and Finigan are all new names to ponder for the selectors.
Others successful on the day and coming into that category are Lewis Atkinson (The Burstead), Martin Blake (Garon Park), plus the West Essex trio of George Castle, Sam Wall and Jason Hall.
Now the matchplay stages are getting underway it will be interesting to see how the "newcomers" fare against some of the experienced performers.
These include Craig Housden (Channels), Andrew May (Boyce Hill), Dale Whitnell (Five Lakes), the Orsett duo of Steven Rooney and Alex Woodward, Ross Spurgeon (West Essex) and Adam Winwood (North Weald).
Full match-play first round draw: Matthew Southgate (Thorpe Hall) v James Court (Thorndon Park); Martin Blake (Garon Park) v Alex Woodward (Orsett);' Ben Tobin (Basildon) v Alex Finigan (Upminster); Ross Spurgeon (West Essex) v Andrew May (Boyce Hill); Dale Whitnell (Five Lakes) v Adam Winwood (North Weald); Sam Wall (West Essex) v Steve Rooney (Orsett); Lewis Atkinson (The Burstead) v Jason Hall (West Essex); George Castle (West Essex) v Craig Housden (Channels).
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