Strong defence of League title as Men's Team are Runners-up in 2022
In his team talk following the final match of the season against Halifax Huddersfield, Manager, Andy Lockwood praised his team for their efforts throughout the year, especially in singles play but could not help but reflect on what might have been, had our foursomes play been of a similar standard. The matches against Sheffield and Teesside were both lost by a score of 20:16 following afternoon fightbacks from foursome deficits of 9:3 and 10:2 respectively. On such small margins are league titles won and lost.
Meltham golf course is set on a hillside where almost every fairway has a severe camber and with the ground hard and fast running, the aim from the tee was often thirty yards or more from the centre of the fairway. Needless to say, there was some element of luck involved to stay on the short grass.
For only the third time in the season, East Riding took a lead from the morning foursomes, fighting off a late challenge from Halifax Huddersfield in the top two games, both of which went to the 18th. The last game, which had the two Team Managers pitted against each other, was a tight contest, which also went the distance, with the home side prevailing and this pairing and the identical result was repeated in the afternoon singles.
From a lunchtime score of 8:4, progress towards the winning line of 19 points was slow and not without some worries along the way. Paul Lockwood and Ryan Gray made early contributions with comfortable wins, to which Steve Uzzell added a halved game to take East Riding to 13 points. The middle order however was struggling and it was looking as if we would need to win the last three games. Fortunately, Jacob Hodgson, playing at number 5, relieved some pressure by making a late run to win on the 17th and when Alan Wright secured a half, having been 2 down with 3 to play, East Riding were almost there.
Dan Digby at number 10 was cruising until a cruel bounce at the 16th put him deep in the trees and only 2 up. However, a laser straight shot to the 197 yard 17th gave him the win which put East Riding on 18 points, leaving George Clark to tie up the match with a win on the 16th. That left Tom Benson who, having gone 1 up at the 17th with a tee shot the equal of Dan's, managed to find all sorts of trouble at the last and conceded the hole for a halved game, to give a final match score of 21:15.
Later in the evening it was reported that Sheffield had beaten Leeds, meaning that East Riding finished the season as runners-up, matching Leeds on points but with a superior match score total.
Tommy Risker was unable to play in the final match due to injury but came to support the team and could do nothing to prevent Paul Lockwood taking over his top position as Player of the Year. Bad luck Tommy and congratulations to Paul.
Howard Palmer
ERU Men's Team Support
