Former Union player crowned new Yorkshire ladies champion
Former Halifax-Huddersfield Union Jubilee Trophy winner Lily Hirst has been crowned the new Yorkshire ladies champion.
Huddersfield member Hirst came through two rounds of stroke play qualifying and four matches to lift the trophy at The Bradford on Sunday.
The American collegiate player defeated The Oaks' Cherry Marley one up in a final that reflected the dominance of the pair in the stroke play section of the Yorkshire Ladies County Golf Association's flagship event.
Hirst and Marley had finished at least five shots clear of the other 14 qualifiers, The Oaks' player topping the charts with scores of 70, 73 while the eventual champion stormed back from a disappointing opening 76 with a best-of-the-week, four-under-par 69.
In the first round, Hirst had beaten Zara Ali (Cookridge Hall) 4&3, ousted Ganton's Amy Staveley in the quarter-finals and saw off Charlotte Colley, of Phoenix, 3&1 in the last four.
Former English women's open match play champion Nicola Slater (Woodsome Hall) had looked to be in the form required to win at The Bradford when she demolished title holder Emma Brown, of Malton & Norton, 7&5 in the quarter-finals, but fell 4&3 to Marley at the penultimate stage.
Hirst is a student at the
University of the Incarnate Word, in San Antonio, Texas, and has placed in the top 10 three times this year in collegiate competitions, including taking third spot in last month's Southland Conference Championship.
Halifax-Huddersfield Union's juniors showed great
strength of character by following a 26-10 setback in their opening Yorkshire Inter-District Union League match of the year, at Bishop Auckland to Teesside, by defeating Leeds 20-16 at Low Laithes.
Frank Greaves's young charges swelled a narrow lead held at lunch after the morning foursomes by taking victory in four of the first five afternoon singles. Two further wins and a half saw them over the line before Leeds's tail limited the extent of their loss.
Dewsbury District's Callum Spencer brought home the half, the first time in four 2023 contests that he had not savoured victory.
Spencer's clubmate James Scatchard has three wins out of four, as does Crosland Heath's George Hanson, who last year established himself as a member of Greaves's senior YIDU side.
Chris Wood won the union's handicap stroke play championship as Crow Nest players filled the first four positions on their home course.
Wood shot a nett 70 off 10 to win on countback from seven-handicapper Neil Connor. David Simpson was third (8613-73), three strokes behind the leading pair