British Boys champion Matthew Nixon and triple winner Oscar Sharpe have been named in a six-strong England boys team to face Sweden Boys at The Buckinghamshire Golf Club on 10th April.
Nixon (pictured left – photo courtesy of Tom Ward), 17, from Lancashire, joined an impressive list of former champions such as Jose Maria Olazabal, David Howell and Ken Ferrie when he took the title at Royal Aberdeen last August.
The other members of the team to face the Swedes are Tom Berry and Gary King from Surrey, Jack Hiluta from Essex and Northamptonshire’s Adam Myers.
Hiluta, King and Nixon are members of England’s under 18 squad while Berry, Myers and Sharpe are in the under 16 squad.
Hiluta, 17, made an impressive debut for England in last year’s Boys Home Internationals at Moray in Scotland, winning five of his six matches. This year he has played in the Triangular Match against Canada and South Africa near Pretoria and beat full cap David Horsey on his way to the last 16 of the Spanish Amateur.
King, who made his debut in the annual under 16 international with Scotland at Hartlepool last autumn, is among a crop of talented youngsters to emerge from Surrey. A former Surrey under 14 champion, earlier this year he finished runner-up to county colleague Seve Benson in the Qatar Open Amateur in Doha.
Prior to his British Boys triumph, Nixon finished second in the North of England under 16 Championship in 2005 and last year was runner-up in the Lancashire Championship and the Lancashire Boys Championship.
Berry, 16, the Surrey under 14 champion in 2005, finished runner-up in the Reid Trophy (England Under 14 Championship) that year and played against the Swedes 12 months ago at Meon Valley. He helped England win the Nations Cup in last year’s McGregor Trophy at Worthing and represented Surrey in the Boys County Finals at Pannal.
Myers, England under 16 champion in 2005, has been capped at that level for the past two years and was also a member of a winning Nations Cup team at Worthing,
Fourteen-year-old Sharpe from Gloucestershire made history last year when he won the under 14, 15 and 16 titles following his victories at Worthing and Gosforth. He also won the Douglas Johns Trophy and the North of England Boys Championship and represented England at under 16 level against Spain and Scotland.
The match with Sweden will consist of three morning foursomes followed by six singles.
The full England team is: Tom Berry (Wentworth), Jack Hiluta (Chelmsford), Gary King (Tyrrells Wood), Adam Myers (Northants County), Matthew Nixon (Ashton-under-Lyne), and Oscar Sharpe (Minchinhampton).
Contact:
Lynne Fraser, EGU Marketing and PR Manager
Email: lfraser@englishgolfunion.org
Tel: 01526 354500
