The third series of the YIDU Men's League saw East Riding treading unfamiliar territory at Waterfront Golf Club, a nine hole course at Wath upon Dearne and the home club of the Sheffield President. With multiple blind tee shots and doglegs, the first nine holes were likely to be problematic in terms of club selection and aiming point from the tee.
And so it proved as, halfway through the morning foursomes, East Riding found themselves well in arrears in four of the games and only 1 up and all square in the other two.
Second time around, however, the knowledge gained from the first nine, helped the team consolidate the latter two games into 2&1 wins, firstly for East Riding Amateur Champion, Ryan Gray playing with Jack Maxey and then for youngsters Jack Northgraves and Luke Thornton.
The team were contemplating an 8-4 foursomes deficit until word came through that Team Manager, Andy Lockwood, stepping in to play at the 11th hour, and Phil Wright [both pictured above], also playing his first match of the season, had overturned a two hole deficit to win on the 17th green. The lunchtime scoreline was delicately poised at 6-6.
Into the afternoon singles and it looked as if East Riding had the measure of the course as game after game turned blue (the team's shirt colour).
The top game, however, was an exception as Steve Uzzell, having lost his foursomes to Yorkshire colleague Charlie Daughtry, suffered a similar fate in the singles. Ryan Gray restored parity with a dominant 6&5 win, shortly followed by Jack Maxey 3&1 and Leigh Gawley 4&3. Johnnie Fisher secured a frustrating half having been 2 up with 3 to play, losing a ball on the 17th. Andy Lockwood followed his morning heroics with a 5&4 win and Jack Northgraves prevailed in a tight game by 2&1.
At this stage, East Riding had 17 points and with Tom Brown guaranteed a point at dormie 3 and Luke Thornton heading down the last 1 up, 19 points were in the bag. Tom would go on to close out his game by 4&2, but Luke ended all square leaving Phil Wright to add the icing on the cake with a 1 hole win.
The final scoreline was therefore Sheffield 14 - 22 East Riding, a significant win against a team with which we have had many close matches in the past, only for Sheffield to always prevail. In fact, the older members of the team could not recall when East Riding last beat Sheffield on their own turf. Anyone out there able to offer an answer?
We move on to Driffield Golf Club in two weeks time when East Riding will be hosting Leeds Union in a top of the table match on Sunday 9 July.
The Player of the Year standings [click here] after three games have a colourful feel at the top as Tom Brown and Ryan Gray lead the way on 17 points, closely followed by Tom Benson on 15.
Howard Palmer
Men's Team Support
