WHO WERE BEATEN

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

WHO WERE BEATEN

Pennink's path to the final was strewn with the corpses of distinguished adversaries. He had to go to the twentieth hole in the fifth round to beat the holder, H. G. Bentley. In the quarter-finals he won by 2 and 1 from W. Sutton, the champion of 19^29, who* had earlier repeated a former triumph in disposing of Cyril Tolley. Sutton has a well-established reputation as a putter, but he started badly by missing a short one on the first green and Penmnk fairly beat him at his own game. In- the semi-final Pennink always appeared to have the measure of Illingworth, and won a good game by 2 and 1.

! Next to the winner, the player who distinguished himself most was Fred Smith, a twenty-three-year-old barman from Burnham and Berrow Artisans Club, who devoted a week of his annual holiday to make his first attempt on a championship title.: He defeated. Kenneth Frazier, the Warwickshire champion, by C and 4 in the quarter-finals before succumbing to Crawley in the semi-final by two holes. The other semi-finalist was Geoffrey Illingworth, the Cambridge captain of 1928, whose victims included C. Stowe, the hero of the stroke-play competition that decided the County Championship, and A. G. Skinner, of Sidmouth, who carried the hopes o£ Devon to the quarter-finals. A. L. Bentley, the .brother of the holder, reached the last eight for the second year in succession before being beaten by Crawley on the last green in an intensely exciting match in which the lead changed hands several times. I