Cumbria as defending Champions spent  a good two days practising at Wallasey Golf Club set on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire, in the hope of repeating the success of 2009. The competition features teams of 6 playing two medal rounds, with all 12 scores counting towards the aggregate.

On the day , as play progressed , it was evident early on  that Lancashire were  ahead and even pulling away from the field. This is a course that most of their players would be familiar with on the Northern Order of Merit Tour. Cumbria's lead player was Silloth's John Longcake,who was unable to produce his form from the Logan in 2009 coming home in 76, 4 over par. Will Bowe, James Atkinson and Grant Little came in with under- par figures of 70, 70 & 71 respectively  but with Nicky Bell on 74 and Andrew Millray on 76  the Cumbrians were  trailing in 6th place. Lancashire finished the morning round with five of their six players recording below-par scores, the worst score being par. They were ahead by 20 shots and the competition seemed to be over and it was now a matter of pride as to where the rest of the Counties finished.

The wind got up in the afternoon, with the resident professional thinking it was 4 shots worse than the morning. This did not stop Yorkshire's Daniel Wasteney breaking the course record with a 6 under round of 66. He had at one time been 8 under! Of the Cumbria players only Nicky Bell improved on his morning round with a 72. Will Bowe and Grant Little had the best aggregates on 143 each as Cumbria came fifth on 883, behind Yorkshire ( 872), Northumberland (874), Cheshire (879). Lancashire failed to beat the all-time record lowest score by 1 in recording a total of 842, a staggering 30 shots clear of their nearest rival.

Cumbria's Captain Martin Hand , whilst naturally disappointed that Cumbria had not repeated the success of Seascale last year said that he " had plenty of positives to draw from the players' performances. Whilst it was obvious that Lancashire had the job sewn up after the morning round, our guys stuck in there ,in not too pleasant conditions. It maybe augured well for the remainder of the season that some of the players were showing an improvement in form and confidence on the Wallasey fairways"

Tom Stout

President