Hat-trick For The City

Nov 4 2009 The Journal

CITY of Newcastle Golf Club has had yet another great season and following on from winning the Newcastle and District League, they have won the highly prized Dixon Cup - their third victory in a row. The superb setting of Chester-le-Street Golf Club in County Durham was the venue for this year's Champion of Champions team event and involved the five winning league teams from the North East region.

The Dixon Cup is a scratch stroke play event, bringing together the winners of the Hadrian League, North Northumberland League, Newcastle and District League, North Durham Union and the Teesside and District Union.

Each club fields a team of seven players with the six best scores to count. In addition, the Presidents Cup is presented to the player with the best individual score on the day.

Having won the Hadrian League this year, Prudhoe fielded their 'Young Guns' and on paper, they looked a good bet for the title.

City of Newcastle topped the Newcastle and District League and following their victories in 2007 and 2008, the team were not going to relinquish their title without a fight. South Moor won the North Durham title and from the south of the region, Saltburn-by-the-Sea Golf Club finished champions of the Teesside Union. And representing North Northumberland, Goswick were looking to win the Dixon Cup for a record fourth time.

But it wasn't to be for Goswick, the transition from links to parkland proved to be a problem, although Alan Potts and Elliot Wilson played well, both scoring 73.

Saltburn appeared to have the same problem with many of the team scoring in the high 70s - their best round of 74 came from Jason Jones.

Prudhoe surprisingly finished in third spot although their three musketeers certainly performed - Andy Scrimshaw 71, Tom Rowland 72 and Danny Shevill 73.

Although fielding a weakened team, South Moor took second place on a score of 447, with five of the team playing very steady golf, all scoring 74 or 75.

But it is low scores that count in this competition and for the third year running, the City of Newcastle players really delivered the goods - Phil Ridden 70, Simon Lee 70, Johnny Todd 73, Neil Elborn and Nicky Maddison 75s, and Simon Coultas 77. Their combined score of 440 won the title by 7 shots - a pretty emphatic victory.