'Team Yorkshire' reign supreme

Yorkshire Boys manager Philip Woodcock had his ‘A’ Team on duty as the lads won the Northern Region Boys Qualifier by a country mile – a full 32 shots ahead of Lancashire and Northumberland. Woodcock’s team travelled to Shrigley Hall Golf & Country Club in Cheshire buoyed by the availability of England Men’s players Josh Berry and Dylan Shaw-Radford, fresh back from international duty in Estonia. With county Captain Jack Northgraves, Yorkshire Boys winner and runner-up Jake Wallis and Tom Hartshorne, plus Crosland Heath’s George Hanson in the six-man team, they were always going to be a force to be reckoned with. And how. A 36-hole strokeplay competition with five from six to score, Yorkshire set an early pace with Shaw-Radford, Wallis and Northgraves coming in under par, -3, -2 and -1 respectively. Berry and Hanson were both +1 with 14-year-old Hartshorne’s off-colour 78 not counting. At that point Northumberland were ‘only’ 8-strokes back with Lancashire a further 7-shots adrift and Cheshire, Cumbria and Durham basically out of the running. In the afternoon Hanson (- 3) and Wallis again (-2) were under par, with Shaw-Radford and Hartshorne both on +1, Berry +4 and Northgraves missing out via his 80. But the 357 afternoon tally was still 16-shots better than next best Cumbria, as Yorkshire progressed to the National Championships at the John O’Gaunt club in Bedfordshire at the end of August. Manager Woodcock said: “I’m so proud of them, it was a terrific effort and certainly it was the biggest winning margin in my experience. “Dylan and Josh only got back in the country on Sunday night but I asked them if they wanted to play and they were up for it, after having a day off on Monday. It was the strongest team I could have had and it showed with the result. “Thanks have to go to Robbo (coach Steve Robinson) for his work with them, but this really was Team Yorkshire at its best.”