Report on the Cumbria Individual Matchplay Championship held at Ulverston Golf Club , May 26th to May 28th 2008.

Sixty four of Cumbria's best golfers gathered at Ulverston Golf Club to contest this year's Individual Matchplay Championship. Unfortunately, the date clashed with the Welsh Amateur Open at Conwy, which resulted in the field being short of the likes of Will Bowe, Nick Bell and Gary Wolstenholme.

In the qualifying strokeplay phase on Saturday in fairly windy conditions, veteran John Longcake led the field with two rounds of 71, which is par for the course. He was closely followed by Kendal's James Atkinson on 143, Penrith Junior David Simpson on 144 and defending Champion Craig Morrow on 144.

Sunday morning's round was greeted by a gusting and strengthening wind from the North East which is unusual at Ulverston. As the morning progressed there were no major casualties amongst the favourites, though Jopson , against Millray (Windermere), and Bowyer against Parkin (Ulverston), both had to take trips down the 19th to settle the issue.

In the quarter finals , Jopson defeated  defending champion Morrow, playing on his home course 3&2, Longcake beating Coates of Ulverston 4 & 2, Bowyer scaping through against Simpson on the 19th as did Carlisle's Hand against Kendal's Atkinson. In the latter match, Atkinson had a 5 footer to win on the 18th with the wind howling across the green and it just shaded past the hole. On the 19th , Hand nearly drove the green, a par 4,  and then his approach putt tottered on the brink of the cup without dropping in to clinch the tie. 

In the semi-finals, on Monday, the wind was still unrelenting and causing no end of problems for the players. Longcake was taken to the 18th by Jopson who had the misfortune to learn that his ball had drifted out of bounds on the wind. In the other semi , Hand was taken yet again to the 19th by Barrow's Chris Bowyer, and again Hand won with a birdie.

The Final began with Hand and Longcake swapping birdies on first two holes. But after that Longcake's strength in the wind began to tell.The match finished at the 14th with Longcake carding a 5 & 4 win, with Longcake at approximately 2 under for the 14 holes.

Despite the very challenging conditions, Ulverston Captain Charles Dent commented that they had seen some excellent golf throughout this tournament.

 In his victory speech , John Longcake, whose name appears on the trophy for the sixth time in his illustrious career, commented that he was pleased that so many of the youngsters were starting to feature in this event and that they were on the fringe of being picked for the County. His first victory in this event was in 1985, which was before any of his opponents in this competition were born!