Teesside Union 24 – 12 ERUGC
Sunday 14th June, 2026
Hartlepool Golf Club
The second match of the YIDU season was played against Teesside Union at Hartlepool Golf Club on the North-East coast. The match took place against a backdrop of overcast skies with limited sunny spells and a very cold wind blowing in from the North Sea. The weather proved a portent of things to come.
Captain Rees Brown made a few changes from the previous fixture owing to various last minute player unavailability and illness issues, but a competitive team was put together and travelled up to Hartlepool to play against a strong Teesside team.
The match started with the morning foursomes with the East Riding top pairing of Hornsea’s Jonny Fisher-Ulliott and Scarborough North Cliff’s Tom Duck leading the way in what proved to be a very tight match throughout, finishing all-square and a point for each side.
Match 2 featured the Ganton pairing of Seth Topham and George Walker. The match was another tight affair which didn’t look good for East Riding at one point, but Seth and George battled through to win 1-up and give East Riding two valuable points.
Filey’s Tom Sanghera and Burstwick’s Paul Wray were the East Riding pairing in Match 3 and in another hard-fought match narrowly missed out on the win to finish all-square.
Unfortunately, the first three foursome matches were the highlight for East Riding as Teesside won the remaining three foursome matches to go into an 8-4 lead at lunch.
After the disappointing morning foursome results, East Riding wanted a fast start in the afternoon singles to try and wipe out the four-point deficit and gain some momentum. However, Teesside had other ideas and although Jonny Fisher-Ulliott and Tom Duck fought long and hard in their singles matches, Teesside continued their winning streak to go further ahead.
Paul Wray, Hull’s George Clark and Brough’s Dan Digby gave East Riding some encouragement by duly winning their singles matches and this was complemented by Seth Topham and Tom Sanghera, halving their matches to give East Riding a couple of additional points. Unfortunately, East Riding were always battling from behind and Teesside Union proved too strong in the remaining matches for East Riding Captain Rees Brown, Tom Benson, George Walker, Tom Brown and Lewis Hunt.
The Hartlepool course was presented in good condition and proved a challenging test for the players on an overcast day backed by a very cold breeze off the North Sea. Sadly, East Riding failed to get the monkey off their back at Hartlepool with Teesside Union eventually winning the match by a score of 24-12.
Thanks to ERUGC Members’ Secretary John Illingworth and ERUGC Secretary Tom Elder for standing in for Howard Palmer, supporting and keeping the players fed and watered around the course. Thanks also ERUGC President Alan Hutchinson and Honorary Life Vice President Edward Clark and wife Eileen who travelled up to Hartlepool to support the team.
Up next, East Riding travel to Filey Golf Club to take on Harrogate Union on Sunday 28th June.
