Glen Gorse and Cosby celebrate title wins
INTER-CLUB MIXED FOURSOMES AND U35S SCRATCH KNOCKOUT TITLES DECIDED
TWO inter-club county titles were decided at Lutterworth GC, writes Jennifer Prentice.
Glen Gorse beat Longcliffe to win the mixed foursomes championship, with Cosby lifting the U35s scratch knockout title again.
This year, for only the second time, both finals were played over one round instead of two, which has been the usual tradition for these tournaments for many years.
But pressure on tee times, partly created by coronavirus lockdowns, saw the county golf union make the decision last season to cut the length of the encounters.
It was agreed this would be repeated for the 2021 campaign and it could become the annual resolution in future.
In the event of teams drawing overall after one round is completed, extra holes would be played to resolve the final result.
Glen Gorse became the mixed foursomes champions when they finished 9-up on aggregate against Longcliffe.
The club’s A pair of Neil Fallows and Moira Page, a former county ladies’ president and county captain, were two-up against Andy Harding and Joanne Barradell, while the Glen Gorse B pairing of Barry Marshall and Pam Skidmore finished sevenup against Martin Downing and Beth Johnson.
In the semi-finals, Glen Gorse were 2-up against Whetstone at Cosby GC, with Longcliffe 2-up on Cosby at Whetstone GC.
Cosby became the under-35s knockout league champions when they finished 7-up on aggregate against Kibworth.
Cosby have a proud record of success in this event over recent years.
Lingdale lost to Kibworth in this year’s semi-final, with Cosby going through against Charnwood Forest.
In the first clash of the final, Cosby’s James Gamble and Coby Cartwright beat Martin Anderson, the former county captain, and Oliver Lewis by two holes, with Cosby’s John Fairbrother and Dave Cooper winners by five holes against Jake Pearce and Jamie Watson.
Both of the winning teams were presented with their trophies by county golf union president Phil Askew (Rothley Park).
The play-off in the county B league this season – the first time there have been two divisions – was at Glen Gorse GC.
It is the first time there have been two in this league since it was launched several seasons ago. This year there were six competing clubs in each division – Beedles Lake led the Walker division, Humberstone Heights the Ryder.
The climax was tight to say the least and approaching 8pm, with the light fading rapidly, and with the prospect looming of extra holes to resolve the issue, Beedles Lake triumphed with the final putt on the last hole of the course to secure an impressive 3 and 2 victory.
Steve Winder, the B league chairman and organiser, said: “Phew! We nearly had to put on the floodlights.
“Congratulations to the winners and runners-up Humberstone Heights, who have had a wonderful league season, and a big thank you to all of our clubs for ensuring that our league continues to be the major golfing tournament in the regional calendar.
“Now we move on to our Finals Day which is set for Cosby GC later this month, with all 12 clubs and 96 golfers competing. So we are looking forward to a great day.”
Beedles Lake notched 12 points to top the Walker division from five wins, 25 games won, two halved matches and three defeats from their 10 fixtures.
In the Ryder division, Humberstone clinched 14 points, 29.5 individual games won, from their 10, with six wins, two halves and two defeats.
Cosby, Lutterworth and Scraptoft all had 11 points in Walker division, with Melton Mowbray on 13 and Whetstone on 12 in Ryder division.