ENGLISH CHAMPION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 142, 17 June 1937, Page 27

ENGLISH CHAMPION

THE FINALISTS

BOTH CRICKETERS

The new English Close Champion is J. J. F. Pennink, the Oxford University captain of 1935, who in the final at Sftunton defeated L. G. Crawley by 6 and 5. The meeting of these two was a contest between youth and experience," says "Qolfing," for Pennink, although he has already some: notable minor successes to his credit, is but twenty-four, while Crawlcv, ■■it the ag» | of thirty-three, was making his third appearance in U,e final, having won'the title in 1931 wind taken Stanley Lunt to the thirty-seventh hol(i in 1934- II was a battle 6iso between North and South, for Pennink belongs to Royal Ashdown Forest, while Crawley. though 'he plays cricket for Essex, enters in big iolf tournaments from Brancepeth Castle.

It is interesting to note that although the English Championship has now been in existence for thirteen years, this is only the second time it has been won by a South of England player, the previous occasion, curiously enough, being also the only previous'time the event was held in the West—in 1930, when Dale Bourn won at Burnham. e For University golfers and people with a Boat Race complex, the final had the additional piquancy of j being a meeting of Oxford and Cambridge. And youth, Oxford and the South were deservedly victorious over experience, Cambridge and the North. Both players are cricketers, for Pennink played in the Tonbridge eleven. But Crawley bears the hallmark of the cricketer in his play, with a wnsty back-swing and no follow-through to speak of. And this swing was not functioning smoothly at the start of the match: He topped his drives at the second and third and hit his teeshot to the short fifth" so feebly that only' a" lucky kick from a hummock took' the ball to the foot of the green "when it looked ; like finishing •in a bunker. In the. meantime Pentium had been setting us all an example of the way to putt.' After a somewhat 'nervy start in which. Crawley chipped right over the plateau from the left and?Pennink: failed with.this first attempt to get up on to the green from "Miss Van Wie's grave," Pennirik got down'a ten-footer to win tthe hole in 4to 5. Playing "one off three," he sank a beautiful putt the whole length of the green for a 3 at the secondhand he holed another three-yarder for a 3 at the sixth, to become 3 up.