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The Cumbria Men's team kicked of their Northern Counties league season on Saturday with a home tie against defending league champions Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire Men's team are currently on a record breaking run of 10 consecutive Northern Counties League titles so it was always going be a tough match as the teams did battle over the beautiful Kirkby Lonsdale course.

Following a disappointing 2025 campaign, the Cumbrian squad have been putting in the hard yards over the winter months with regular coaching sessions and get-togethers, and Captain Simon Young was in a position to select a very strong side for the season opener. Simon admitted that as so many players were available and in form, it was the most difficult team selection of his tenure.

On a fairly benign morning the home side came out of the blocks quickly and built up some early leads in the morning foursomes. The Yorkshire team showed their quality in battling back with some superb golf in the alternate shot format. The standard of golf on show was exceptional with pairings needing to be several shots under par to claim a match.

The Cumbria lead pairing of big hitting Will Coxon (Carus Green) & Cumbria legend Will Bowe (Workington) had played stellar golf in the early stages of their match but some mistakes had let Yorkshire back in and the match went down to the wire. A regulation par at the last was enough to collect half a point after Yorkshire's putt for the match just slipped by the hole.

Kirkby Lonsdale member Ian Robinson was making his league debut after some highly impressive early season form. He paired up with Brampton's Lee Sturrock in the second foursomes match and although the pair played some tidy golf all morning they just fell short, losing 2 & 1.

Current Cumbria Strokeplay Champion Rory Thompson (Carlisle) rekindled his partnership with Keswick's Paul Jenkinson and the duo dovetailed nicely for a well deserved half in match 3.

Experience counted as Martin Hand (Eden) and Craig Morrow (Seascale), with over 100 Cumbria appearances between them combined to secure a much needed last hole victory.

After regular partners Kieran Waters (Carlisle) & Jack Hunter (Workington) had gone down to a surprise 4&3 defeat in the anchor game, the match score stood at 3-2 in favour of the visitors with one match left on the course. Despite the good start, the session looked to be going the way of some the previous season which could leave too much to do in the afternoon singles.

Step forward Carlisle's Andrew Wolstencroft & his partner Kerry Morrow (Ulverston) who had battled all morning to be tied coming down the final hole. With Yorkshire nicely positioned on the final green in 2, Morrow's approach looked good but just fell off the left side of the green leaving 'Boom Boom' with a tricky chip shot. Wolstencroft showed the watching supporters some spanish hands with a delightful chip that hit the pin but agonisingly stayed out. When the Yorkshire putt slipped by the half point meant the overall match result was still in the balance going into the afternoon singles at 3.5 / 2.5 in favour of the visitors.

The wind had been picking up throughout the morning and the afternoon saw it increase further making the course play very tricky for the players as the 12 singles matches got underway.

The top match did not disappoint in terms of quality. Will Coxon & Charlie Daughtry shared no less that 14 birdies in their tie with Daughtry coming out on top after sealing the game with a 20 foot birdie putt on the 16th green.

Home favourite Robinson showed no nerves and seemed to be in a hurry as he raced to a resounding 6&5 victory in game 2.

Games 3 and 4 went Yorkshire's way before Rory Thompson battled his way to a well deserved victory on the final green. Game very much still on.

Jenkinson, who had struggled to find the pace on the greens all day produced arguably the moment of the day on his final hole. 1 down stood on the tee, knowing that he would likely need a birdie to get anything from his match, an approach to around 50 ft suggested this was unlikely. When his opponent rolled his birdie putt up to hole side it was left to Jenkinson to try to force the issue. And that he did. Holing his monster putt to half his match right in the middle, much to the delight of watching team mates and spectators.

The next game was another to go the distance, with a typically gritty display Martin Hand held his nerve to clinch a 1 up victory. That left the visitors leading 7 games to 6 with 5 singles games left out on the course.

When Craig Morrow & Kieran Waters succumbed in their matches it left the Cumbrians needing to win all of the remaining 3 matches to secure a halved match, whereas a half point in any would seal victory for Yorkshire.

The good news was all 3 matches were going Cumbria's way. They just needed to hang on.

Wolstencroft saw his opponent sink a long range effort for birdie on 16, leaving him 2 up with 2 to play. When Yorkshire's Nathan Ali hit his tee shot to inside 10 ft on 17 it looked like the tide may be turning. Wolstencroft responded with a fine shot to the left side of the par 3 green. A well judged putt to gimme range followed and when Ali's putt stayed above ground the point was Cumbria's.

Jack Hunter & Kerry Morrow had both built good leads in their respective games to be 4 up with 4 holes remaining but Yorkshire won the 15th hole in both matches meaning neither could relax.

First Morrow held his nerve to close out his match with a solid par on the 16th.

Although Hunter also made par, it was far from conventional with an outrageous 'up and down' from amongst the brambles behind the green. It proved enough to close out his match 3&2.

This all led to Cumbria winning the singles session by 6.5 to 5.5 and tying the match at 9-9.

A tremendous result that vindicates the hard work and preparation that the squad have put in prior to the season. Although not a victory, the draw in arguably the hardest game of the season sets up the team for a realistic chance of challenging for the Northern Counties League title.

The next game sees us travel to Durham on Saturday 13th June where the team will be hoping to build on this result and return home with the points.