Friendly Seniors and Super Seniors Match v Staffordshire

1st August 2024 at Staverton Park GC

On another hot, sunny day the Northants non league Senior team met at Staverton Park Golf Club for their match against Staffordshire. Despite the Staffs team driving through a massive thunderstorm which caused several of their team to arrive just before tee off time the weather stayed fine throughout the match.

Our team was a blend of 6 Senior players and 6 Super Seniors (+65yrs), so there was even more riding on the result with the 2 categories competing for ultimate honour. We were particularly pleased to welcome a new Overstone player,  Stephen Coverdale who played their first County games as last minute replacement. These changes also resulted in a reorganisation of pairings and showed the strength of the team spirit that we all adapted to these very positively.

The morning matches were a closely fought affair with the scores level at 3-3 with pairings of Alan Freeman/Billy Beard & Richard Jackson/Rob Clark halving their matches and Alistair Heslop/Rob Price & Mike Abbots/Grahame Castle securing a point each.

The afternoon matches followed in similar manner with all matches going to at least the 17th and were once again keenly fought with the overall result being an honourable draw at 9-9. The same morning pairings halved plus Alistair Heslop/Rob Price and PeterboroughMilton stalwarts, Doug Hill/Ted Dunn both winning 2&1. The new combination of Alistair & Rob must be congratulated for winning both their Greensomes & 4BBB.

Included within the non league match was the new Super Seniors concept. Both Northants and Staffs fielded 6 players each who have represented their respective Counties for many years. The matches showed that age is just a number, competitive juices still run high. Staffs secured a 2/1 win in this occasion, with all 3 games finishing on the 17th or 18th. We look forward to a rematch next season and more opportunities for Super Seniors to continue to compete at representative level.

Special mention again to Billy Beard and Steve Coverdale who stepped in at the last moment to enable Northants to field a full team. We hope they enjoyed the experience and welcome them into our squad for future selection.

Thanks must go to Staverton Park GC and their catering staff who looked after us very well and the Green Staff who presented the course in fine condition.

I have enjoyed supporting Seniors Captain, Brendon Moss, this season in assuming some responsibility and duties on the day for the non-league matches. I hope everyone who has played over the year has felt welcome and valued. It's no easy task organising both league and non league matches which follow thick and fast this time of year so all credit to Brendon for all his hard work.

Andrew Macdonald