Cumbria’s golfers finished third in the men’s county championship after a closely-fought finals weekend.
The Cumbrian team finished behind Essex and Lincolnshire as they pipped Gloucestershire to third in the England Golf championship at Whittington Heath.
Cumbria, whose team was comprised of Carlisle’s Kieran Waters, Workington’s Jack Hunter and Will Bowe, Seascale’s Craig Morrow, Carus Green’s Will Coxon, and Ulverston’s Luke Quint and Kerry Morrow, were still in with a shot at the title going into the final day in Lichfield.
They began with a tied contest against Essex, a strong singles showing earning a share of the points at 4.5 each.
Trailing from the morning foursomes, there were impressive wins for Waters, Hunter, Coxon and Quint to get Cumbria back on terms.
The Cumbrians then staged another comeback for a tie against Gloucestershire, again the singles seeing the team recover a foursomes deficit.
Their singles showing this time saw Quint and Hunter victorious as Cumbria fought back again.
It kept Cumbria in with a chance of the title going into the final matches but a 6-3 defeat to Lincolnshire dashed their hopes as Essex defeated Gloucs to win their first title since 2009.
Cumbria’s final contest against Lincs saw Bowe and Coxon defeated by Will Hopkins and Sam Whitaker, while Quint and Morrow earned a tie against Simon Richardson and Adam Wainwright.
Waters and Hunter also tied with Sam Done and Jack Diment to complete the foursomes.
The singles then saw Coxon all square with Hopkins, while Done got the better of Waters.
Hunter was beaten by Whitaker to put Lincs further ahead, while Bowe responded with victory over Wainwright for Cumbria.
Morrow lost narrowly to Haynes as Lincs sealed overall victory, before Quint earned a tie for Cumbria in the final singles match against Diment.
Cumbria had progressed to finals day after impressively topping the table in the northern counties qualifying event.
Their performances put the Cumbrians ahead of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Northumberland, Durham and the Isle of Man.
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