Handy is banking on togetherness

May 8 2008 by Tim Taylor, The Journal

COUNTY Durham’s new captain, James Handy, is taking heart from pre-season results ahead of Saturday’s Northern Counties League game at South Moor, his home club, and Durham will be the first to admit they needed a lift.

Finishing bottom of the table two years running is a comedown for the county that won The Big Six in 2005 and they will be hoping for a change of fortunes against Cheshire, who have finished next to bottom two years in a row.

Handy’s first two games as captain have seen the side draw 9-9 against the PGA North East North West Region and wallop the British students 12½-15½.

A winner of 69 county caps , Handy said: “I have been encouraged by the start and we have plenty of confidence ahead of Saturday. They’re a good set of lads.

“One of the problems the county has had over recent years seem to have been centred around the foursomes results, so I have tried to find settled partnerships and to pair up golfers with somebody they feel comfortable with.

“Where this has involved new partnerships I have asked them to try to get games in together to get used to each other and they will be practising in their pairs on Friday, the day before the match. But I feel there are at least 17 or 18 players who could be in the team at the moment.”

Two players outside Saturday’s team of 12 and the four reserves in Handy’s thoughts are Callum Tarren – the 17-year-old from the Dinsdale Spa club who took his first tentative steps back on the course this week after six weeks out of action – and Durham City’s Richard Mason.

Tarren, who fractured his ankle playing football, has decided to quit his winter sport to concentrate on golf and Handy said: “Callum would have been in the team but for his injury.”

Mason’s non-selection was a close call. “The fact that Richard is planning to turn professional did not affect the decision,” said Handy. “The team was picked on merit, but he could be included in the future.”

The only member of the 2005 Big Six team still an amateur, Hugh Hamilton, has made himself unavailable for the county this season.

The reason given is work commitments, although Hamilton will play for his club, Seaton Carew, against Richmond in the Teesside Union league tomorrow.

Whatever lies ahead for Handy and the team in the league season, nobody will be able to wobble on about the good old days. In the 24 years the league has existed, Durham are the only one of the six counties never to have won it.

FOURSOMES PAIRINGS: Richard Aisbitt (Brancepeth Castle) and Michael Curry (Brancepeth Castle), David Patterson (Seaham) and Jamie Birkbeck (Bishop Auckland), Stuart Brown (Castle Eden) and Graeme Marchbank (Durham City), Chris Hewitt (Beamish Park) and Steven Dance (Ramside Hall), Ian McEntee (South Moor) and Julian Wynn (Eaglescliffe), Neil Harker-Bell (South Moor) and Bryan Ross (Heworth).