The third match of 2024 season saw the East Riding Juniors travel up the A1079 to play the York Union at Heworth Golf Club.
After a five week hiatus, the Union needed to get back to winning ways against the always good York Union. With the spectre of rain in the forecast, the decision was made to get the matches underway slightly earlier than scheduled. As it transpired, this definitely helped the afternoon matches.
The Union was forced into a series of changes for this match because of other events. In came Seth Topham from Hornsea, Ethan Matthews from Burstwick and a debut start for Tom Anderson of Cottingham Parks GC. Welcome Tom.
Like everywhere this last nine months, Heworth have had their trials and tribulations with weather. However, it has to be said that the green staff had done a sterling job in getting their course in such good shape considering what they have had to deal with. Thank you for your efforts.
Heavy skies greeted both teams for the morning foursomes and it wasn’t long before light rain started to fall. In the top match, the Cottingham duo of George Coope and Warren Burns played some very steady golf and obviously didn’t want to get too wet, finishing their match in double quick time with a superb 8&6 win. Well played chaps.
In match 2, the Union had the experienced Luke Townhill from Ganton, partnering the impressive Seth Topham, followed by the experienced pairing of Callum Burns of Cottingham and Ganton's Ben Staveley. Again both matches were well contested, but the East Riding managed to prevail, but they were made to work hard for their wins, eventually triumphing 3&2 in both games.
In match 4 George Walker of Ganton and Ethan Matthews were having a slightly tighter game. It ebbed and flowed both ways, but ultimately saw the East Riding win 2&1 in a well played match.
Match 5 saw a new pairing of Alfie Dacey of Ganton and the debutant Tom Anderson. They obviously enjoyed one another’s company, as they produced a very good 6&5 victory. Well played both of you.
In the anchor match, the dynamic duo of Tom Adcock and Huxley Sawyer both from Cave Castle GC, turned in a strong performance against their opponents, winning 7&5. Nicely done chaps.
So at half time, the East Riding were 12-0 up. The team were warned about complacency and not to assume the hard work was done.
We were granted a brief interlude in the wet stuff as lunchtime approached, however right on cue as the afternoon singles matches commenced, so did the rain!
The Union needed a good start to strengthen their morning position. The first three matches were close affairs at the turn with no more than one hole in it. Further down the order things were holding steady quite nicely.
Thankfully in matches 1 and 2, Warren Burns and George Coope soon concluded proceedings the way of the East Riding with victories of 4&3 and 3&2 respectively. This seemed to filter through the field, as matches started to finish quite quickly thereafter. Callum Burns, Seth Topham and Alfie Dacey all produced excellent performances to win 6&5, 5&3 and 7&5 respectively. Well played all of you.
In match 4, George Walker was finding life a little trickier, but still battled away, eventually going down 2&1.
The dynamic duo from Cave Castle, Huxley Sawyer and Tom Adcock produced the largest margins of victory in the afternoon winning 9&7 and 8&6 respectively. Well played both of you.
Ethan Matthews produced another very assured performance to win his match 6&4. In match 11 and on debut, a few nerves saw Tom Anderson weather a tricky start to prevail 5&3. Well doneTom - maximum points on debut.
With distant rumbles of thunder and the rain starting to fall heavier, there were only two games (matches 3&6) which saw the 18th in the afternoon. In match 3, Luke Townhill’s game was a tight affair all the way. Unfortunately for Luke, he lost 2 balls when they plugged in the ground never to be seen again which was unfortunate, but to his credit kept battling away. A half was maybe a fair result in the end.
So ultimately, the last match on the course saw Ben Staveley come from 2 down with 2 holes to play to tie his match. A fantastic effort Ben - well played.
Ben and Luke’s efforts on the last capped a dominant day for the East Riding, running out 32-4 winners. The result consolidates East Riding's third place in the YIDU table, but has significantly boosted their hole difference which could be a factor later in the summer.
Full fixtures results and league table
Many of the team recorded maximum points on the day, including Callum Burns who maintains his 100% record in 2024 and with it the lead in the Player of the Year standings. Cave Castle's Tom Adcock also took away six points from Heworth and remains three behind.
Thank you to the York Union for your kind hospitality and to all the staff at Heworth GC for being wonderful hosts. It was greatly appreciated.
The matches were played in a great spirit and well played to both sides. It was great to have so many spectators out watching some excellent golf by both teams. Thank you also to squad members who came to support their fellow team mates. That is so important.
As always, thank you to all the volunteers and parents who help make these events happen.
So our next match will be another tough challenge against the Bradford Union at Beverley & East Riding Golf Club on Sunday 2nd June. Always nice to see plenty of spectators on the Westwood. The boys will appreciate the support and some extra ball spotters!
Sunil Mukerjea
Junior Team Manager
