Table toppers Hornsea came to Hull (all players pictured above) on a windy evening looking to secure a victory which would all but assure them of a place in the play-offs. After their bye week, Hull were playing catch up and needed to take some significant points to get them back in the shake-up.
Harry Mukerjea led the home team off against fellow East Riding u18 player Alfred Anderson and came up against a Hornsea player with a hot putter. Alfred was always up and reached dormie four before at birdie at 15 sealed the deal 5&3.
In the second match, Hull's Junior Captain George Pepper took on Seth Topham. The match was all square after 12, but Pepper 'grinded' his way through the next few holes to prevail on the penultimate green 3&1.
In the anchor match, Hull's 'super-sub' Max Wright had to play off the maximum handicap index of 18.4 (as opposed to his actual 25.4) to take on Hornsea's consistent Lilly Anderson (16.9) off level pegging. Max was playing his first game of the season after his GCSEs and played superbly to take the last three holes to win 2up.
Elsewhere, second placed Skidby had the short trip to Beverley. George Coope was giving plenty of shots to his Westwood opponent and succumbed 5&4 to Seth Fairburn. ER regular Bobby Beasley lost to Will Bentley by the same margin and Beverley moved up to third in the league table when Oliver Wilson beat Alfie Slater on the last to complete a 6-0 clean sweep.
In the night's third fixture, third placed Cottingham headed east to Burstwick who started the evening only two points behind their guests. Ewan Mackenzie kicked things off for the visitors with a 3&1 win over Tom Ward. Ethan Matthews tied up the match with a 1up victory over Warren Burns, but brother Callum clinched the match for Cottingham with a 6&5 triumph over Tyler Hewitt.
Hornsea stay top despite their defeat and Cottingham jump to second, but both only have one fixture remaining. The chasing pack are pretty much playing for the other two play-off berths. Calculators at the ready for the last two weeks of a very exciting league phase!
See the updated league standings here
Jonathan Clark
ERUGC Junior League Secretary
