Cantelo praises team for fending off amateur charge

Cantelo thought the cup was won and lost on Friday afternoon when his men dominated the foursomes after the morning fourballs had been shared.

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DUBAI // The most helpless figure during yesterday's denouement to the Dubai Golf Trophy was Luke Cantelo, the non-playing captain of the professional team. Unlike John Mills, his amateur counterpart who was able to lead by example by capturing what at the time looked to be a significant point at the expense of Stephen Deane, Cantelo was consigned to a watching brief in this UAE version of the Ryder Cup.

"It was an honour to be appointed captain and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing it," he said. "But I can't wait to get back playing again next year." Cantelo thought the cup was won and lost on Friday afternoon when his men dominated the foursomes after the morning fourballs had been shared. "We managed to open up a three-point lead through some tremendous performances in those foursomes and that was so helpful for me in terms of deciding my singles line-up," he said.

"I chose to put our big names out early to try to secure the six points we needed and they did that, so everything worked out as planned. "But if I had to single out one of our guys it would be George Kasparis for his [2&1] win over Ahmed al Musharrekh. That was a big point for our team." "It turned into a nail-biting finish because the amateurs rallied so well and all credit to them for doing so. They have some great players and showed great character when things were going wrong for them.