York Union of Golf Clubs
Mens IDU Match v Leeds Union
The Mens first home match of the season saw season debuts from Tom Kelly (Fulford) , Harry Lee (Oaks) and newly crowned Amateur Champion, York's Matty Dolling and with such a strong side out, Captain Andy Robson's team were confident of giving the strong Leeds Union a good game.
In the morning foursomes, regular opening pair, and regular winners, Ciaran Matthews (Sandburn) and George Robson (Fulford) were rolled over by Sam Claypole and the returning Yorkshire Men's County player, George Heath. Even though York birdied the first and went 1 up, Leeds then birdied the next 5 and remained in control for the next 10 holes. Heath remained impressive all day, beating Robson again in the afternoon singles 4&3 , again, with 5 birdies in the first 6 holes! Matthews fell to Heath's fellow Wakefield, Andy Stringer 2&1.
York's first points of the day came in the second foursomes match with Kelly and fellow Fulford member, Sam Norman winning nicely against Josh Bassit and James Trant 3&2. Kelly had the task of going out second in the singles against Claypole and met with a similar performance of Robson v Heath, with Kelly losing 5&4 to Claypole who finished 5 under on the 14th.
In the 3rd match it was Pike Hills Legend, Ali Smith and Rob Hutton (Fulford) who had a painful defeat to Waterton Park pair of Tai Naylor and Jack Owen. Smith and Hutton fought back from 4 down to 1 down on the 17th. With the York pair sitting pretty just short of the green and the Leeds pair pin high but 30 yards right amongst the bushes, it was expected we'd be going down the 18th all square. Unbelievably the Leeds ball was found in open space with a simple chip beyond the flag and two putts later it was a half. Reinvigorated by this stroke of fortune the impressive Naylor then hit a lovely iron into the heart of the green and it was game over.
At this point the morning foursomes were heavily weighted in Leeds favour. in match 4, Sandburn's Nathan Wilkinson and Fulford's Pete Jones went down 5&4 loss to Liam Bennet and Saul Gilford. Bennet's putter was the hottest of many on display in the scorching heat. Match 5 faired no better with Josh Bristow (Scarthingwell) and Dolling paired up against another Wakefield player, Ewan Bromley and clubmate Stringer, losing 5&4.
The last match of the morning saw Oaks wunderkinds, Tom Pyman and Harry Lee take on Sam Stokes and Tom Robinson and the scoreline looked a lot better at lunchtime after the York pair won 3&1. Foursomes scores, York 4 points, Leeds 8 points.
Given the afternoon singles defeats of leading pairs, Robson and Kelly, the York Team rallied strongly in matches 3 to 6, with strong wins for Pyman, Norman and Wilkinson, all making a host of birdies and finishing nice and early to support the rest of the team. Match 6 was classic matchplay, with Dolling 1 down with 2 to play. With a big group of spectators around his second shot close to the 17th green Dolling played a worldy of a flop shot from the rough, sunk the putt for a birdie and win, so it was down the 18th and with Dolling holed out for a par 4, it was down to Gilford to make his put for a half. It missed and Dolling earned another win to tie the match at this point.
However, around this time Hutton and Lee had suffered heavy defeats, so Leeds just needed another win for the match. With 4 matches left on the course York needed to turn around the matches from Matthews, Jones, Bristow and Smith. In the end, none materialised and one can report the Leeds Team's putting was the difference and ended the day victors, York 12 points , Leeds 24 points.
Match 3 is on Sunday 25th June at Fulford Golf Club against Halifax & Huddersfield Union where Robson's Team hope to get the season kick-started with a win!
Results Sheet attached
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