Northumberland maintain golf title challenge

Northumberland's Ben Taylor, Andrew Minnikin, Nicky Maddison and Kris Gray all won the decisive singles to lift their team to third and leave Durham marooned at the bottom.

Maddison had to miss the previous week's county strokeplay championship at Newbiggin because of college commitments in Kansas, where three wins and three more top ten places in his conference placed him in the Ping Collegiate All American Top Five.

The Northumberland No 1, Mark Penny, had been another absentee as he tied down a respectable 15th place finish in the National Collegiate Junior Tournament in Alabama.

On Saturday, Penny played Callum Tarren in the No 1 singles, in what, on paper, should have been an epic. Penny won both the county strokeplay and matchplay titles last season.

At 18, Tarren is Durham's youngest No 1 since Graeme Storm, holds both county crowns and has been awarded a scholarship at the Radford College in Virginia, which he will begin at the end of August.

But Tarren brushed aside Penny, one of the most formidable golfers in the North East, by a crushing 6&5.

Penny won the first hole but was four down after 11 as Tarren reduced a respectable, and beautifully manicured, course to, for him, no more than a drive-and-flick track.

With an accurate 300-yards plus drive at every hole, bar the par-threes, Tarren outdrove Penny by 30-40 yards every hole and had a surer touch around the greens.

Initially, Penny gave ground with poor putting. But once he let a golfer like Tarren get away he would have needed his A game in every department on a day when putting troubles seemed to affect confidence in other areas.

Tarren looks at each shot, makes up his mind quickly and hits it.

Told that several spectators with a sound knowledge had said he already looks like a Tour pro, Tallen said: "That is a nice compliment, but it is simply not the case. I've got a long way to go and a lot to learn before I can think about mixing it with professionals."

Having taken a shine to Ponteland - "I like parklands courses out in the country that are in lovely condition" - he placed his entry for the Green Jacket tournament there on July 12, before driving home to Darlington.

But by the time The Journal Champion of Champions comes round and the EGU Champion of Champions for county title holders, Tallen will be into his first US college year.