FORMAT: Team 4BBB League/Knockout
After half a century of trying Woodhall Spa finally won the Lincolnshire Scratch League at Ashby Decoy on Sunday.
Despite having one of the strongest set of category one golfers in the region, the competition has proved elusive with Sleaford, Cleethorpes and Belton Park dominating the event in recent years.
And it was the latter that Woodhall beat (4-2) to carry off the trophy. When captain Sam Vickers and his partner Liam Pucill reached the 18th tee one up, their guaranteed half point was enough to decide the contest.
Sam, who works as a Physical Performance Coach at the National Performance Centre at Woodhall, took over the scratch team in April and has seen the club’s elite players come together as a proper team.
He said: “We have a lot of very good players at Woodhall Spa and it is quite shocking really that this was our first win in the competition.
“There wasn’t much of an appetite at the club for the event and we started the season with no team kit but gradually the players started to embrace it and enjoy it and it shows in the fact we won our last six matches in a row.”
With the county split north and south, Woodhall, who used 18 players across the campaign, started the year in North (East) Division One. An early loss at home to Waltham Windmill put qualification in serious doubt but they won their last four league fixtures to book their spot in the North League play-off against the winners of the North (West) – Market Rasen.
At Holme Hall they saw off Rasen 4.5-1.5 to reach the final with South League winners Belton Park, who edged out Burghley Park and Sleaford to make the last two.
At Ashby, Woodhall won the top two matches while, in match five, Aaron Ashberry and Chris Hudson claimed an emphatic 5&3 success. That meant the critical clinching half point arrived in match four as the captain and his partner went dormie at the penultimate hole.