After a challenging 2024 season, the Yorkshire County Seniors team is gearing up for a busy 2025 with a strengthened squad looking to build on individual success stories throughout last year
The Yorkshire County Seniors team is looking ahead to a packed schedule in 2025. Following a year of individual success, seniors’ captain Andy King is hoping to find team wins once again in 2025.
“2024 was a disappointing year as a team,” said Garforth-based Andy. “We were playing catch up in the Northern Counties league after an opening defeat by Lancashire. Following big wins over Cheshire and Cumbria, we were disappointed to lose to Northumberland and Durham, and finish well down the table. Add in a disappointing showing in Northern Counties Qualifying at City of Newcastle, and it proved a tough year as a team.”
While the team didn’t find big success stories in 2024, there were several notable individual performances close to home and on the national stage for Yorkshiremen.
Kevin Parkes represented England in the Home Internationals, while Richard Jones was crowned Northern Counties senior champion at Wynyard. Stefan Priest won both the Yorkshire Seniors Championship and Matchplay Championship, and went on the be crowned English Senior Men’s County Champion of Champions.
“The individual success for our players was fantastic,” added Andy. “This year we’ll have several players reaching the age of 55 and becoming eligible to play for the team – including 1998 Yorkshire Amateur winner Shaun Tarplett. We’ve also added Andy Lockwood (Hessle), Graham Mclean (Meltham), Andy Bell (Fulford) and Daz Walton (Wetherby) to the squad. Add in the returning Steve East, Richard Holt and Kevin Parkes as well as Phil Kitching and Andrew Woodhead, and there’s a lot of strength in the 2025 squad.”
The team will begin their campaign with away matches against Cumbria, Cheshire and Northumberland before they face Durham at Howley Hall and Lancashire at Huddersfield.
They will also be aiming for success in Northern Counties Qualifying at Wilmslow in September, with the winning team from that event set to compete in the English Senior Men’s County Finals at Harrogate Golf Club on October 7-9.
“We have a good squad of players and I’m looking to them to show me they deserve selection for the team,” added Andy. “It would be great to see as many of them as possible perform consistently in events, and maybe even see some more Yorkshire players make it into the England seniors’ team as well.”
As well as the seniors’ strokeplay and matchplay championships, there are two scratch events coming up this season – at Wakefield on May 15 and at Garforth on May 28. For the full list of fixtures, visit www.yugc.co.uk/2025-seniors-fixtures-results
