The Manchester and District Golf Alliance, the biggest organisation of its kind in the country, runs a series of Inter Club Knock Outs over the summer months and the blue riband competition is for the Dunham Forest Trophy which has been played for sixty years, having started in 1965.
The team format is the club professional plus the six top amateurs in a singles match-play competition and nearly 100 clubs were in the initial draw with the competition beginning in March and concluding with the final at the superb Dunham Forest Golf Club.
Reaching the final this year were Disley and Ashton-on-Mersey, two relatively small Cheshire golf clubs who are both very proud of being involved socially in their local community and in promoting and developing junior golf.
Ashton, just a 9-hole club, reached the final for the first time in 2021, being beaten by Rochdale, but they showed their resolve the following year by getting through to the final again and beating Denton to lift the trophy for the first time.
This season they beat holders and local rivals Ringway in the earlier rounds and then Stamford in the semi-finals to set up the big final against Disley.
At the heart of Mersey’s success has been long-serving professional Kris Andrews who has played a huge part in the development of junior golf at the club.
Kris said: “All of the team have come through our junior section and they are an incredible group of players (with a highest handicap of 3.4) and the bond we have as a team is unbreakable as they just love to play for each other and represent our club and myself and the club cannot be more proud of them.
“It was a great match against Disley, who also had most of their players coming through as juniors, and they represented themselves and their club impeccably in an amazing standard of golf and respect for the game- a great example of the Alliance motto ‘Friendship Through Golf’.”
The game was a true thriller of two halves with Ashton sprinting to a 3-0 lead with wins for Dan Leigh, one up, Joe Donnelly 4&3 and Luke Andrews 2&1.
Then Disley showed their fighting spirit as they levelled it at 3-3 with wins for Lewis Holland 5&3, Cheshire star James McCormick 4&2 and professional Josh Crumplin, the Alliance Order of Merit champion 4&2.
The remaining match on the course had seen Mersey’s Luke Aikenhead three up early in the match but Andy Timmins came back well for Disley to take the match into extra time on the 19th hole with a big audience of players and supporters following them.
To the delight of Ashton Luke got a birdie on the 19th to see his team over the line to set up après golf celebrations and give deserved compliments to the Disley team and followers.
Kris added: “With the Ryder Cup in full action in the USA it is perhaps fitting to mention that Samuel Ryder’s father is buried at St Martin’s Church, a few yards from our club!
“I would like to thank all of our club members for their support and they included a distinguished former junior star Gemma Clews who has enjoyed great success in the game at county and national level and she is the current leader in the LET Access Tour Order of Merit and has kept the club very close to her heart.
“I would also like to thank the MDGA organisers who are priceless in what they do for the PGA professionals and club amateurs for running events every week in the autumn and winter months for us to compete in as well as the Inter Club Knock Outs throughout the year- I cannot thank them enough.”
The Dunham Forest Trophy was presented to Kris by Alliance President Ian Brooks and also the individual prizes to all of the players and Ian complimented both clubs, their players and supporters for putting on a great day for golf and also gave deserved thanks to Dunham Forest Golf Club for their fantastic help in staging another wonderful final.
Pictured (top) the victorious Ashton-on-Mersey team
Copy & images: Geoff Garnett
