THE SHROPSHIRE & Herefordshire County Seniors (SHUGC) put themselves into the history books by winning the West Midlands Senior League for the first time in almost 10 years.

The County Senior’s opened up their League matches with an away fixture against Warwickshire at Edgbaston Golf Club.

The morning matches saw SHUGC get off to the perfect start as they took a 5.5 to 0.5 lead into the afternoon exchanges.

Even with such a lead it was not going to be an easy task, and as expected Warwickshire came back strongly, but two afternoon wins saw SHUGC over the line to a 9.5 to 8.5 win.
 

Next up came Derbyshire and a trip away at Buxton & High Peak Golf Club. The SHUGC side got off to another great start taking a 5.5 to 0.5 lead taken into the afternoon matches.

This time there were no mistakes by the SHUGC team with a clean sweep of wins resulting in a resounding 17.5 to 0.5 win.

The scene had now been set with SHUGC on course to win the West Midlands League, but the Shropshire and Herefordshire side had two tough home games against Staffordshire and Worcestershire.

First up was Staffordshire at Bridgnorth Golf Club and with Staffordshire needing to win to keep their league aspirations alive it was not going to be an easy game.

The morning matches were close and the SHUGC side were given a shock by only taking a point lead into the afternoon games. However, a strong performance saw the Shropshire & Herefordshire team over the line 10.5 to 7.5.

The victory meant only Worcestershire stood in the way with a fixture to play at Oswestry Golf Club.

Worcestershire showed their intent by bringing their players up for a practice round the day before the match, so the scene was set.

Again SHUGC came out of the blocks quickly winning the morning session 5 to 1. With rain forecast for the afternoon the matches teed off early but it didn’t dampen SHUGC’s team morale with the team winning all but one of the afternoon games giving a winning margin of 15 to 3.

SHUGC were celebrating winning the West Midlands League for the first time in nearly 10 years.

Damian Scholes, seniors county captain, said: “It has been a great team performance and I thank the county for the support it has shown to the team.

“But it’s not over yet as we have a Midlands Playoff against the winners of the East Midlands League. “And next up is the England Golf Union Midlands 6 Man Team Qualifier where we hope to improve on our runners-up finish last year.”