Elaine shares the lead in English strokeplay

Jun 18 2009 by Tim Taylor, The Journal

WHITLEY Bay’s Elaine Elliott is the co-leader of the Senior Women’s English Strokeplay Championship with one round to play.

Three times Northumberland champion before switching to seniors golf, Elliott signed for a five-over 78 yesterday for a two-round total of 158 to share first place with Norfolk’s Jo Ashmore and Sue Dye, from Cheshire.

Her round showed two birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey over the Royal Ashdown Forest course in Sussex.

Elliott, who prefers a quicker pace of play, benefited yesterday from an increase in the number of spotters on a course containing blind holes and heather.

That meant the former Scotland girls international was round in four hours on a windier day rather than the five hours she need to complete her first round. Two other Northumberland players made the cut, Alnmouth’s Ally Hansen (79 87) and Ponteland’s Lesley Marsh (82 86).

Matfen Hall’s Lucy Newton missed the cut by eight shots, shooting 91 86 for a 31-over total of 177.

:: OVER the past six years, Northumberland’s record in Ladies County Match Week has fallen somewhere south of embarrassing. They have finished bottom five times – on four occasions without scraping so much as half-a-point for a drawn match with any of the other five counties – and next to bottom the other time, in 2006.

Next week is match week time again, at Heswall on Merseyside.

This time Northumberland are hoping to avoid finishing bottom, and with no points, for the third year in a row.