Kevin’s dream team on top

May 13 2008 by Tim Taylor, The Journal

THE emergence of Northumberland as one of the powerhouse counties of British golf has been confirmed by a startling win over English champion county Yorkshire.

Victory by 10½ points to 7½ at Morpeth arrived only a fortnight after Northumberland beat Scottish champions The Lothians 11-7 in a pre-season match.

The latest triumph came with the county captain, Kevin Cademy-Taylor, having a strong enough team to name Will Robson, last season’s runner-up in The Journal Champion of Champions, as reserve.

For a variety of reasons, Andy Paisley and Garrick Porteous were not in the side and nor were other leading golfers Mark Penny, Danny Shevill and James Curry.

In county golf terms, it’s strength in depth of Manchester United proportions and Cademy-Taylor pointed out: “The way we value the team ethic is well known and it was a fantastic day for us. Andy, Danny and James are all away in the States. But what pleases me as much as the result was that Will, Mark and Garrick not only turned up to support the team at Morpeth, they also caddied and, don’t forget, Garrick is an England international. That says it all about Team Northumberland.”

Victory for Yorkshire, the Northern Counties League champions, looked likely, when they opened this season’s league programme with a 4-2 victory in the foursomes.

But Northumberland stormed home, winning seven and halving three of the 12 singles matches and Cademy-Taylor said: “It underlined what we have been hammering home in practice for the league season.

“You can’t control your output in terms of results, anything can happen out on a golf course. But you can control your input in terms of practice and mental preparation. Everything we have been working on came together in terms of concentration and team spirit. Yorkshire are the benchmark side – and we had to play them in our first match of the season, a major task.

“If we had lost this match, we would have been relying on Yorkshire to lose a match in order for us to regain the title we won in 2006. But now our destiny is in our own hands. We have set a benchmark for ourselves.

“These are early days, though. The other teams are still strong and will provide difficult opposition. We can’t afford to lower the standards we have set and you take nothing for granted in sport – you have to battle for everything.

“We must maintain the spirit we showed in our 8½-3½ singles win. No other league team has won a singles by that much against Yorkshire since Lancashire in the 2005 season.” Meanwhile, nobody will have enjoyed the day more than Blyth’s Craig Wilkinson, batting at number nine in the line-up. Wilkinson, who works in Aberdeen for Shell in the oil industry, travels down for county matches and was the only Northumberland golfer to win both his foursomes and singles matches.

:: DURHAM’S unbeaten record under new captain James Handy stands at won one, drawn two taking into account pre-season matches.

That is a platform the county hopes to build on, especially once one of their top players, Dinsdale Spa’s Callum Tarren, has fully recovered from a fractured ankle.

But Durham’s first league match of the season – a 9-9 draw against Cheshire at Handy’s club, South Moor – still leaves them without an NCL win for almost two years.

The cruellest moment of the match came as Beamish Park’s Chris Hewitt and Steven Dance (Ramside Hall) battled back from going four down after five holes to earn a half from their foursomes..

That would have been a win for the pairing – and, as it ultimately turned out, their team – had they not three putted at the last from the edge of the green, 15 feet from the flag. Putting up the slope, Hewitt raced the initial attempt six feet past the flag and Dance’s effort horse-shoed out of the lip of the cup.

The match, however, produced Durham’s first foursomes win for five years, a fitting reward for the thought put into the parings by captain Handy, who said: “It was a pleasing start and I hope we can build on it.”

In the closing contests, South Moor’s Neil Harker-Bell and Heworth’s Bryan Ross, the Durham numbers 11 and 12, both won their singles to salvage the draw.