League Lead Extended

I-D LEAGUE LEAD EXTENDED

Two wins of a differing nature have placed Sheffield’s Inter District side in a commanding position at the top of the league table.

Despite missing several important players for the fixture against Leeds at Abbeydale, Sheffield had their noses on front throughout the day, and ran out 21-15 winners. Two weeks later, however, at Middlesbrough, the defending champions made life very difficult for themselves.

Although bottom of the table, Teesside fielded a number of Durham county players against Sheffield, so a tricky game was always in prospect. Exactly how tricky, however, did not become clear until the lunch break, at which point Sheffield found themselves 9-3 behind. Bailey Gill and Nathan Fell halved the top foursomes, and Sam Bairstow and Charlie Daughtrey recorded Sheffield’s only win in the morning session, as two matches lost at the 18^th to leave Sheffield facing a mountain to climb.

Did Captain Neil Stones (left) bring out the hairdryer during the break? “Not really. We knew that Teesside had lost from an even bigger foursomes lead against York in their previous game, so it was obvious it could be done,” he said. “You just tell the lads not to worry about the overall position and go out and win their own game.”

Which is exactly what they did, led off by Bailey Gill’s impressive 5&4 defeat of the experienced Jason Jones. Although Matt Evans lost the second game, victories for the powerful middle order trio of Bairstow, Luke Palmowski and Jamie Harrison levelled the match.

The next four games were shared two apiece, but numbers 11 and 12 for Sheffield, Dominic Moon and Stones, were taking no chances. Victories by 4&3 and 5&4 respectively meant that the comeback was sealed without any last hole drama.

“We got there in the end, that’s the main thing,” said Stones. “The nature of foursomes is such that this is going to happen occasionally, you lose a couple of games you should have won and find yourselves in trouble. But we’re a stubborn bunch, we won’t give in!”

The next match sees Sheffield travel to Beverley to face East Riding, and with the correct sequence of results they could possible amass an unassailable lead at the top of the table.

                                       League Table

                              P              W             L              H             Pts         

Sheffield                4              4              0              0              8

Leeds                      4              2              1              1              5

East Riding             4              2              1              1              5

York                        4              2              2              0              4

Harrogate              4              2              2              0              4

H’fax-H’field          4              1              2              1              3

Bradford                 4              1              2              1              3

Teesside                 4              0              4              0              0

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