As darkness descended on the final green at Hainsworth Park, Jonnie Fisher made his second birdie there in the space of 20 minutes to take Hornsea through to the 2023 Scratch League final.
Finding a suitbale evening for the 'all H' semi final of Hull v Hornsea at Hainsworth had been tricky, given the amount of golf these players are needed for at the business end of the season, but two sides of the highest quality were selected which felt like the Scratch League was really back. Four of the participants were fresh from winning the YIDU league title in Harrogate last Sunday.
Hornsea's Leigh Gawley (pictured left) put the first point on the board for Hornsea with a clinical display against Gary Pepper. His 7&6 victory included five birdies on the immaculate Hainsworth Park layout who had kindly agreed to give courtesy for this tie.
In the top match, Hull had four time ER Amateur and two time Matchplay champion Jon Samuel taking on Hornsea's equally decorated Steve Uzzell. Jon looked to be putting Hull back on level terms as he led Hornsea's talisman by 3 holes with only five to play. An Uzzell rally brought it back to one hole before Jon finally clinched the match on the 17th.
That left Jonnie Fisher (right) and George Clark (middle) slugging it out on the back nine as the sun went down. A topsy turvy match had Jonnie 1up through 13, before George managed to wrestle the initiative to stand on the par 3 18th at 1up. A Fisher birdie took the match into extra holes which was going to be played at the par 3 to save time and increase the likelihood of actually finding a tee shot.
George knocked one close after Jonnie went long, but his putt to seal the victory agonisingly stayed above ground, before Jonnie calmly rolled in his own five footer for par. Back to the tee they went!
This time it was Jonnie who found the short stuff and the 15 footer from 'Fishtank' for another two took Hornsea into the final at Ganton on Sunday 17 September.
Who they will face is still to be decided, as Cottingham Parks and Scarborough North Cliff had similar darkness issues when their match was poised at 1.5 - 1.5. The halved match was unable to even start extra holes, so they will return to Hornsea on 14 September to get a result.
