Narrow defeat to league champions

Oct 9 2008 by Golf North East

PREPARATIONS for Team Northumberland's last Northern Counties League match were again hampered by rain.

Just five days before the match most of the courses in the North East were either closed altogether or using temporary greens.

Lancashire were the visitors and they had conquered all in their four previous matches.

With Lancashire's 100% record along with winning the Northern Counties Championship, it was going to be a tall order to get a good result and try and finish 3rd in the league.

The morning Foursomes were shared 3-3 with five matches coming down the 18th.The only match which didn't was James Curry and Simon Lee, who controlled their game throughout and won 2&1. The closeness of these matches was a sign of things to come.

Phil Waugh birdied the last for a half in the top match and Phil Ridden won 1up to give us a slight advantage.

That advantage was increased when James Curry won 4&2 following a display in power hitting and finesse around the greens. The next six matches came down the last hole with Lancashire just getting the better of the results.

This left the match result at 7.5 points each.

Lancashire closed out the next game 2&1, then Dan Shevill convincingly won his match 4&3 to leave the match finely poised.

Lancashire won the last game on the course 2&1 to gain a 9.5-8.5 victory - very close indeed.

Team Northumberland would like to thank Slaley Hall, our team kit partner for their vision and support during the Northern Counties 2008.