County Boys Under-18s
Northamptonshire Boys Under-18’s team are through to the Anglian League final after winning the regional qualifier by just half a point from Lincolnshire at Spalding GC.
With Leicestershire also taking part in the triangular match, all the eight players in the Northants line-up contributed at least one singles point to the team total.
Victories from Mark Stockdale, Joseph Hyde and Theo Brown, plus halves from Corey Neville and Ben Lavender, secured a 4-4 draw with Lincolnshire.
Jacob Williams, Ed Keech and Oliver Pritchett were also successful in the match against Leicestershire as the team’s 6½-1½ win was marginally better than Lincolnshire could achieve.
Northamptonshire’s hopes of adding the East Midlands League crown are already over after just one match as they lost 8½-6½ against Cambridgeshire at St. Ives GC.
With the hosts having all won their previous three matches, Northants couldn’t prevent them from completing a cleansweep as they let a narrow lead from the morning pairs slip – losing six and halving one of the 10 afternoon singles ties.