YOUNG GUNS FIRE THEIR FIRST SHOT
Posted on: 28 July
Not so much a baptism of fire – more a windy welcome as our juniors made their Eric Apperly Shield debut this weekend.
Channelling the great Gary Player in their immaculate black uniforms, your Castle Hill young guns travelled to St Michael’s to take on the might of Pymble (our first match was washed out due to the weather).
It was great to see our boys back in action after many years of not being represented in the Shield. It’s largely thanks to our successful junior program that the club have decided to enter a team this year.
Our team was up against it from the start. When Owen Brightman was called in for the coin toss, he needed a step ladder to shake his opponent’s hand. The Pymble captain was six feet 10 inches and 20 years of age!! It was like David v Goliath.
The average age of the Pymble squad was 19 and all of them have been playing Pennants since the age of 14. The average age of our team is 15.
Pymble’s squad had several plus markers with the highest marker in their team an impressive 0.6 (our lowest marker is 0.8). The experience level was so disproportionate, yet our boys were competitive.
Our boys were gallant in their efforts and the results were:
Owen Brightman: defeated 2&1
Will Buckley: won 3&2
Andrew Kneeves: won 3&2
Nick Heanes: defeated 2 down
Ivan Lim: defeated 4&2
Cameron Walker had a walkover
So, the result of the match was a draw, 3-3.
We are so proud of our squad and their performances on the day. It is the first time any of our boys have competed in the Eric Apperly Shield which makes the results even more impressive.
With their progress over the last 12 months largely due to the coaching efforts of Darryl and Paige, we envisage CHCC will be ultra-competitive over the coming years.
With some additional experience under their belts, we believe we are a real chance of bringing home the Shield one day.
We have two matches remaining in the regular season:
CHCC v Lynwood (venue TBA): August 7th
St Michaels v CHC (venue TBA): August 14th
If you are free on those dates, we would love to see you come out and support the boys.
We hope to see you there.
Eric Apperly Managers,
Steve Gannon and Grant Heanes
CHCC Eric Apperly Team – St Micheals GC – 2022