Captain's Report on the County Finals

For the first time since the year 2000, our Nottinghamshire ladies first team came top of the Midlands North Region of counties in the inter county matches week competition which was played earlier at the Enville Golf Club. This qualified them to play in the all England finals against the winners from the other 5 regions, at the Frilford Heath (Green course), from September 13th to the 18th. The 6 counties competing against each other in scratch match play format (3 foursomes in the morning and 6 singles in the afternoon) were Nottinghamshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Lancashire and Sussex.

The event started with a practice round on the first day and the players had the challenge of playing a course which had been extended in length by using the men's tees on many holes. It was noted that there seemed to be rather a lot of bunkers on the course! Later in the evening there was the taking of the official photographs.

The players representing Nottinghamshire were: 
Rachel Boulton (County Champion), Emily Cheshire, Vicki Forecast, Esme Hamilton, Carol Houghton, Emma Howie, Emily Lyle, Laura Morris, Emma Newlove, Glenys Priestley and Lauren Spray accompanied by the County President Joan Underwood, County Captain Kathryn Horberry, and County Vice-Captains Pam Loch and Helen Maber.

On the first day Notts had a fantastic start by beating Lancashire 5-4 and created the headline from England Golf of 'the first upset in the championship' as Lancashire along with Essex was one of the only teams amongst the finalists to have won the title before. Also Lancashire are a team who had beaten 2 counties 9-0 on the way to qualifying for the finals and who had 3 internationals in their team: Holly Muse, Sophie Lamb and Eloise Healey.

Notts result was helped by a 2-1 win in the foursomes with great wins by Rachel Boulton and Emma Newlove, and Lauren Spray and Esme Hamilton over their international players. This meant Notts only needed 3 points in the singles. However it went down to the last 3 games to achieve it, including a great win by Emily Cheshire over her international opponent Eloise Healey. Also well done to Laura Morris who held on to the 16th against Holly Muse and Emma Newlove who also took international Sophie Lamb to the 16th. Sussex beat Gloucestershire 5.1/2 to 3.1/2. Essex beat Buckinghamshire 5-4.

On the second day Notts continued to boost their confidence with a great win over Buckinghamshire, beating them 5-4. Notts took the foursomes 2-1 but had to wait for the last 3 singles games to bring in their wins for victory with the final outcome relying on Laura Morris who won her game on the 17th. This brought Nottinghamshire to the top of the league table as they were the only county with 2 wins. Great excitement for the team regarding the possible outcome of the week.
Lancashire beat Sussex 8-1. Gloucestershire beat Essex 5-4.

Because of the threat of torrential thunderstorms, the format for the third day was changed to only play 1 foursomes game followed by 4 singles and allocate halves for the missing games. Notts were playing Sussex. The foursomes pairing of Emily Lyle and Esme Hamilton narrowly lost on the 18th then Rachel Boulton won her singles game on the 18th to square the result. In the next game Emma Newlove narrowly lost 2/1 when her opponent had a birdie to finish. Meanwhile Lauren Spray had won comfortably on the 15th to again square the match. That left Laura Morris all square playing down the 17th to decide the outcome. She halved that hole. Then on the 18th her opponent's long putt for a par lipped out of the hole leaving Laura a 3 foot putt for the deciding win. We hardly dare look but Laura was successful and once again we have great celebration that we remain top of the league with our 100% record over the other teams. Our nearest rivals at this stage in joint second place were Gloucestershire and Lancashire and they had only won 2 matches. The adjusted scores for today are that Nottinghamshire beat Sussex 5-4, Lancashire beat Essex 5-4, Gloucestershire beat Buckinghamshire 6.5-3.5.

On the fourth day Notts faced Gloucestershire. The foursomes were very tense. Emma Howie and Emily Lyle played against opponents who had 5 birdies in the first 7 holes, but they held on until the 15th. Then Rachel Boulton and Emma Newlove were 1 up going down the 18th against international Bethan Popel and her partner, but 3 putted to lose the hole and finish all square. However Esme Hamilton and Lauren Spray, who were back to all square playing the 18th because of a birdie by their opponents on the 17th, gained their revenge with a birdie on the 18th to finish 1up. The foursomes were shared 1.5 each.
In the singles Notts lost the first 2 games and won the next two to keep the game points shared at 3.5 each. Then when we knew that with Lauren 2 up and 2 holes to play and Emma Howie 1 up and 1 hole to play that we could at least halve the match but they both converted these into wins to give Notts the match 5-4. Of note, Emma had fought back from being 2 down with 4 to play to finish 2 up.

Whilst we were celebrating maintaining our unbeaten run of matches it emerged that Buckinghamshire had beaten our other nearest rival Lancashire and so this gave us a clear lead of 2 matches over our nearest rivals. We could not be caught on the last day - the title belonged to Notts! Great celebrations of our magnificent achievement started a day earlier. Buckinghamshire beat Lancashire 5.3-3.5 and Sussex beat Essex 6-3.

On the final day Nottinghamshire continued with their unbeaten run and finished in the style of true champions by losing only 1 foursomes game to England girl champion Lily Humphreys and her partner and winning all the 6 singles to beat Essex 8-1. Congratulations to Carol Houghton who was introduced to 1st team play and won her game with Emma Howie. Sussex beat Buckinghamshire 6-3 to finish runners-up. Lancashire and Gloucestershire halved

Special mention must be made that Lauren Spray had the great achievement of winning all of her 9 games and had been ably partnered by Esme Hamilton to win the 4 foursomes games. Congratulations to Emily Cheshire, Esme Hamilton and Laura Morris who were presented with their County 1st Team colours.

A truly memorable week for us all and to win the title for the first time brings just reward to the many people who do so much to bring our players to this standard eg previous and present captains, committees, junior committees, the club members who provide the courses for fund raising and matches to name but a few.

Thank you to everyone who sent their good wishes and cards and especially to those who came to support and caddy. I am also indebted to the support received from President Joan, and my Vice-Captains Pam and Helen over the week and from the players who got on so well together and caddied when they were not playing.

Kathryn Horberry
County captain 2015