County Match Play Championship - 24 June to 1 July
This year, the Championship is at Gosforth starting with the 36 hole stroke play qualifying session. Out of the 80 or so players entered, the great news was that two of the lads qualified for the last 16 match play stages - and in some style too. James Curry shot rounds 69 and 67 and Danny Shevill waded in with 66 and 69 to be just two shots off leading qualifiers Andy Minnikin, George Cowan and Ben Taylor.

The cut was made at 139 and the other players who missed out, despite much improved second rounds, were Paul Armstrong (78 and 71), Kevin Robson (73 and 70) and Denny Ward (77 and 70). Shaun Philipson shot a great 66 in the first round but, with a great chance of qualifying, had to retire with an injured back during the second round.

Once the draw was made, James and Danny found themselves facing tough first round matches against 2005 Stroke Play Champion , Phil Ridden, and Chris Paisley respectively.

In a close match, James won 3/1 but Danny found Chris a real handful on the night and went down 5/4.

James now faced the experienced John Oakley in the quarter finals. John is a former County Stroke Play Champion and belied his 50 something age with a scintillating display of driving, iron play and putting and eventually winning 3/2.

I'd heard a rumour that John had beaten James' father, former British Amateur Champion David Curry, in this Championship. So I spoke to John about it and he confirmed that, 21 years ago, he'd beaten David in the quarter finals too. John's still very fit so, if James gets married and has a son, it wouldn't be a surprise if John plays him in 20 years or so. Hopefully, third time lucky for the Curry brigade!

Hadrian League Past Captains Tournament - June 12
I have to confess that this posting is a little self indulgent as I'm pleased to say I finished second and won some wonderful Royal Doulton crystal ware. Last year, I was unable to play so this year's result is especially pleasing.

Equally important is that Prudhoe staged the tournament this year and well over 50 Past Captains attended. The weather was windy but warm and sunny and made our beautifully attended course very tricky for most competitors with only one player beating par.

A big thank you to George, Rachel and their teams for the first class course, food and service. I received compliments from just about every competitor.

The results were as follows:
Les Batey (Bellingham) - 38 points
Me (You Know Where) - 36 points
Ken Robson (You Know Where) - 35 points
Pete Clarke (Hexham) - 35 points
Richard Farrelly (Westerhope) - 35 points

I'm looking forward to next year when, hopefully, I can go one better and win the trophy at Bellingham.

Northumberland Junior Teams Championship - June 11
Our hearty congratulations to Danny Shevill, Graham Younger, Ben Lloyd and Ben Shields for winning our first piece of significant silverware this season.

Over the difficult Goswick course, now an Open qualifying venue, Danny, Graham and Ben Lloyd shot rounds of 75, 75 and 77 respectively to win the trophy by three shots from Newbiggin.

Danny and Graham's scores of 75 also equalled the best individual gross score.

Whitley Bay won the team net prize with a score of 201.

Again, well done lads!

Hadrian League Field Day - Slaley Hall - 4 Jun 2006
We had a great draw playing with Slaley and Hexham on the Priestman Course. The tees were right back, as were the pins, and the greens were not in the best of condition. Consequently, scoring wasn't great. Our players' gross and net scores were as follows:
Danny Shevill 75 (73), David Gilroy 78 (76), Geoff Ross 81 (78), Denny Ward 82 (79), Ian Strachan 85 (81), Graham Younger 85 (81).

With 4 out of 6 scores counting our team scores were;
Gross 316 and Net 306

The winners were:
Team Gross - Ponteland 307, Hexham 307 and Stocksfield 310
Team Net - Stocksfield 293, Newbiggin 297, Hexham 298
Individual Gross - Chris Matthews 71, Chris Paisley 72, Ricky Lee 72
Individual Net - A.Marks (Matfen) 73-6=67, D.Lee (Stocksfield) 77-9=68, C.Matthews 71-2=69