County Week 2016

The Midlands North Region Inter-County Matches 2016 were held this year at Holme Hall Golf Club, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, from June 6-10th. We arrived on the Sunday in glorious sunshine for a practice round on a long, 5867 yard, tight course with testing rough. The first evening followed the usual format of team photos, a welcome party and meal at the club.
Monday dawned and our first match against Derbyshire. It was so close, 2-1 up in the morning foursomes and just missing out 4-2 in the afternoon singles when Rachel Boulton lost to a birdie on 18.
Another hot sunny day on Tuesday against Leicestershire and Rutland, 2-1 down at lunch with Emily Cheshire and Emily Lyle playing par golf to win their match 4-2 and all to play for in the afternoon. The team fought hard and were rewarded with 3 wins and Emily Cheshire scrambled a valuable half on 18 which meant we finished Tuesday with the match halved. At this stage Esme Hamilton had to leave the team because of exams.

The match on Wednesday against Staffordshire started well with 2 excellent results in the foursomes going 2-1 up. Sophie Newlove, back from America, joined the team and once again we started the afternoon singles with high hopes of achieving a further 3 points for a win, but disappointingly we only managed 2 wins and another lost match on 18 to finish the day 5-4 down and bottom of the table.
The matches could have gone either way over the first 3 days and there's no doubt the pressure was on this year, everyone was gunning for the Nottinghamshire County National Winners. Maybe, subconsciously the pressure was off once we knew there was no question of winning again.
Thursday dawned and some of the girls who had played 36 holes each day were rested for the morning foursomes against Shropshire. Carol Houghton, playing for the first time teamed up with Rachel and got a win along with the established pairing of Emma Howie and our County champion, Caron Harrison which resulted in us being 2-1 up at lunch. In the afternoon we had a confidence boosting 5-1 win and gained a much needed point from a wonderful 7-2 result.
On Friday, the final day, Notts. played Lincolnshire on an overcast day. We got off to a great start winning all three foursomes matches! In the afternoon singles the rain came and thunder threatened and Sophie, Emily Cheshire and Lauren Spray all won their matches to give us a 6-3 overall win.
Notts. now had 2½ points to Leics. 2½, to tie for second place but we beat Leics. on games won 25½ to 22½. So we finished second to Staffordshire, who were worthy winners having won all 5 of their matches. We wish them every success in the County Finals.

Full details on our County Week page.