A jubilant Willow Valley team of juniors created a piece of local golfing history yesterday when they became the first club from the HHDUGC region to progress to the English Finals of the Junior Team Golf Home Nations Inter-Club Championship.

The Clifton club flew the flag for the Halifax, Huddersfield & District Union of Golf Clubs when they not only competed but qualified for the grand final of the national event by finishing in second place in yesterday's North Region Qualifier at Cookridge Hall, Leeds.

Yesterday's event saw local Junior League winners from as far a field as Newcastle and Sheffield compete for just two places in the main event at The Oxfordshire later this month. As winners of the 2008 HHDUGC Junior League Final (see report) Willow Valley represented the Union for the first time.

On a miserable, wet and windy day the six-man team were first out, with a two-tee start in operation each team had to post one gross score and four nett scores with the worst score being eliminated. The task was always going to be tough but the hardy followers of Willow Valley paced the fairways keeping everyone informed of how they were getting on over a coffee at the halfway house!

Six-handicappers, Lewis Howell and Tom Calvert were the first out and having covered the front nine in just three and two-over par respectively looked to be in good shape to post the clubs best counting gross score.

The good news filtered through to the WVGC members who had turned out and they started to get excited as Tom Brancker (19 hcp) was amazingly only four-over for the front nine and with Ali Butters (12 hcp), George Branch (11 hcp) and Tom Pinder (20 hcp) all playing around their handicaps things were looking good.

Calvert showed some fantastic scrambling form and with a cool temperament covered the back nine in one-under par to post an excellent gross 73, the second best gross tally of the day. Howell (pictured) battled bravely and despite missing a few short putts posted a creditable 82 in the tough conditions.

Meanwhile, Brancker battled on well and despite a couple of poor holes carded an excellent nett 71 to put his club in a strong position. Branch, having not played much golf of late due to other commitments, showed excellent maturity in battling back on the second half to post a nett 77 whilst Pinder, who was cut five shots last week to 23 and had to play off the maximum allowance of 20, played superbly in the conditions to post a nett 79. It was Butters' score which could be discarded when he posted a nett 82 although he will surely improve for the experience having played well for most of the year.

All said that left Willow Valley with a total of 376 and the long wait began!!!

The two teams that accompanied the Willow juniors around the course were 25 shots adrift which gave the lads heart and as the teams came in one by one and didn't beat the total things started to get tense!

Oakdale Golf Club did take the lead midway through the day with a superb 368 total, thanks largely to a splendid gross 70. That meant that Willow Valley were still hanging on to the second and final qualifying slot by the time it came for the last three teams to come in. At this point it wasn't clear if it was the adults or the juniors who were the most nervous!

After the official scorers dragged the result out for as long as possible it was confirmed that Willow Valley had finished in second place and secured their visit to The Oxfordshire Golf Club on Monday 27th October 2008.

Chris Nuttall, the Willow Valley Junior Team Organiser commented, "I'm absolutely delighted for the team and the supporters who have helped out in such difficult conditions today! This is arguable the finest achievement by a Willow Valley Golf Club Team as I'm certain that no other team have gone on to represent the Club, Union and Region in a National Final."

He added, "What makes it more pleasing is that Frank Greaves, the Union Junior Coordinator, informs me that we are the first team from the Union to win through to this final! I'd like to thank the lads who have been so committed throughout the year and also to many of the dads who have supported their boys in all conditions, special thanks to Ian, Mark, Paul and Alan for their help on the day, now i just hope they go on and perform well in the final because i could do with a holiday!!!"

More information is available on the Junior Team Golf Home Nations Inter-Club Championship website.

Willow Valley are not the only club who have tasted success in junior team golf on a national level in recent years. In 2005 Meltham qualified through the Yorkshire regional event at West Bowling Golf Club for the English Junior Club Championship, a three-man team competition run by the English Golf Union.

They qualified for the Yorkshire event following their victory in the HHDUGC Junior Team Championship at Hebden Bridge and went on to finish 14th at Woodhall Spa in the grand final.

This year Longley Park were the team to go forward to the EGU county qualifier where they finished sixth and missed out on qualifying for the grand final at Harewood Downs Golf Club (see report).