Jubilation all-round as Milton juniors contest a county final

It was a proud day for Peterborough Milton on Sunday as they hosted an historic all-Milton Northants Junior League final.
The Milton team team that won the Northants Junior League. From the left are Kai Raymond, Ben Baker, Lisa Johnston, Ben Morris, Sanjay Nithiyalingam and Harry Smith.The Milton team team that won the Northants Junior League. From the left are Kai Raymond, Ben Baker, Lisa Johnston, Ben Morris, Sanjay Nithiyalingam and Harry Smith.
The Milton team team that won the Northants Junior League. From the left are Kai Raymond, Ben Baker, Lisa Johnston, Ben Morris, Sanjay Nithiyalingam and Harry Smith.

The club’s first and second teams qualified for the final and battled it out in a series of close matches as fortunes fluctuated throughout a dramatic afternoon.

Eventually it was the first team, led by the club’s junior vice-captain Ben Morris, which triumphed 5-1 but all six matches were closely contested.

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The early stages saw Milton I players Morris, Sanjay Nithiyalingam, Ben Baker, and Kai Raymond surge into commanding leads giving their team a tremendous early advantage.

Only Rylan Thomas and Morgan Cresswell had winning positions for Milton II in the early stages.

But at various points every Milton II player pegged back their opponents to turn the final on its head going into the back nine.

Will Smith had levelled his match with Raymond by hole eight, while Adam O’Brien had taken the lead against Morris and got to two up at one stage before snapping the shaft on his driver at hole 13.

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Jacob Williams had fought back to all square with Nithiyalingam in the lead match and with both hitting bad tee shots on 18, this game ended all square.

O’Brien was holding Morris until a wayward tee shot at 16 cost him the hole and a half at 17 took this game down to the final hole.

There Morris played the 18th safely to draw first blood for the first team.

There was more drama behind with Baker going from four up to suddenly trail one down against Jade Roberts, who had played superbly on the closing holes.

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Again this match was decided on the 18th with Baker making a great par to halve the match and prevent Roberts from equalising.

Raymond meanwhile put in a strong back nine to beat Will Smith 4 & 3 to give Milton I a 3-1 advantage.

Then when Lisa Johnston recovered from her poor start to beat Thomas on the 15th 4&3 it was all over.

Harry Smith had also been steadily pulling back his early deficit and by hole nine was right back in contention. This match remained close with Smith holing a long putt on 17 to clinch his game 2&1 over Cresswell and give Milton I their winning margin of 5-1.

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