Whitley Bay Golf Club’s junior team promised to go one better when they missed out on the Home Nations Final last year – and they did.
The North East club qualified for the England Final of the Home Nations Inter-Club Junior Team Championship for their second successive year and went up against Chelmsford, Royal Norwich, Bramshaw, Thirsk and Northallerton and Ealing at Clitheroe.
Last year, Whitley missed out on being one the top two teams to go through to the Home Nations Final, but not this time and they will be off to the Morgado Golf course in Portugal in March after finishing a close second to Hampshire club Bradshaw. The tail end of storm Brian brought high winds and heavy rain to the course overnight on Saturday and into Sunday morning leading to a delay and the competition was reduced to a nine hole format to enable the final to be decided on the day.
Bramshaw emerged winners after a card playoff and there was only 2.5 shots covering the top five teams, but it was Whitley who were runners-up and they go forward to the final in Portugal with Bramshaw where they will compete against teams from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Tournament director Marcus Chisholm, who is chairman of the Northumbria Golf League, congratulated all the players on enduring very difficult conditions.
The Whitley Bay team of Rosie Belsham, Brandon Jones, Charlotte Pickering, James Burston, Alex Jay and Jack Iredale are pictured above receiving their prizes from Clitheroe captain Peter Hargreaves.
