GOLF: Young Hannah is knock out champ
THE Wiltshire golfing spotlight continues to fall on Tidworth teenage prodigy Hannah Turland, writes Ernie Newell.
Turland, the England Girls' Under 13s champion and England Under 16s cap, followed up her recent successes in the Faldo Junior Series and Wiltshire Women's Championship by winning the inaugural Chartex-sponsored Wiltshire Winter Scratch Knock-out Championship.
She defeated Tidworth clubmate and ex-county captain Di Gritt in the 18-hole final at Chippenham by seven and five.
Turland, who turns 14 next month, has a handicap of 1.6 and is Wiltshire women's most exciting young prospect since former Ogbourne Downs Curtis Cup player Claire Waite back in the early 1980s.
And the Tidworth starlet showed her all-round skill in putting it across Gritt at Chippenham.
She raced into a four-hole lead at the turn, won the 10th and 11th and delivered the coup de grace at the 13th.
Gritt, Wiltshire women's captain in 2003-04 and chairman of the Wiltshire Golf Partnership, was philosophical in defeat and sang Turland's praises.
She said: "I didn't play my best golf, but even if I had it would not have been good enough.
"Hannah is a phenomenal young talent."
In the semi-finals, Turland beat county team-mate Emma Breen (Marlborough) and Gritt defeated Tidworth colleague Sarah Waugh.
Turland and Gritt are two of three Tidworth players in Bev Dolman's 11-strong Wiltshire squad for next week's expanded six-county South West County Week Championship at Dudsbury (Dorset), starting on Monday.
The other is former Wiltshire champion Jayne Long.
The Marlborough and Hamptworth club each provide two players.
County captain-elect Karen Gosling and Emma Breen represent Marlborough, while south west champion Jo Shorrocks and young Kyra Horlock wave the Hamptworth flag.
The other four members of the party are four-times county champion Sue Sutton (Ogbourne Downs), twice champion Gill Loughrey (Wrag Barn), Bridget Cartright (Upavon) and Broome Manor teenager Sarah Carvell.
Carvell, daughter of Chartex managing director Chic Carvell, and Horlock, who is, at 12, a year older than Turland when she made her County Week debut in 2006, are the only new faces in the squad.
The other five counties in the round robin championship at Dudsbury are Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Somerset.
10:05am Saturday 10th May 2008
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