County Match Week

Hertfordshire ladies compete annually in the East Region Inter‐County Match Week, playing each of the other five counties -  Bedfordshire, Essex, Cambs & Hunts, Suffolk, Norfolk. 

The format for each match is three foursomes in the morning and six singles in the afternoon, all played off scratch and the winner of the most matches wins 2 points. 

The winners of the East Region Inter‐County Match Week progress to the England County Finals and play the winners of the five other England regions during the course of one week  in September. The format of each match is the same as that of the East Region Inter‐County Match Week, all played off scratch.

County Match Week was hosted this year by Bedfordshire at Aspley Guise and Woburn Sands GC 17 – 21 June

Hertfordshire had a strong squad this year, captained by Denise Fiori, and was delighted that it included this year's English Women's Amateur Champion, Ellen Hume. 

So Team Hertfordshire was very disappointed to lose on the first day to Cambs  & Hunts,  But they came out fighting and won on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

   OVERALL RESULTS

Click below for each day's match results.                        Click here to see photos.

With the Herts team on 6 points and Norfolk on 8 points going into the final day of County Match Week, it was all to play for. Herts needed to beat Norfolk 6 - 3 to win the event and qualify through to the National Final. In the end it was very close - Herts beat Norfolk 5 - 4, but unfortunately just not quite enough to take the spoils.

Herts won the morning foursomes 2-1, leaving them requiring 4 wins in the singles to take the title.

Micaela du Plessis,  Mawgan Vater and Ellen Hume's matches finished first with two wins for Norfolk and one win for Herts, bringng the total morning and afternoon scores to a 3-3 tie.

Anna Collis halved her match, so it was still very very tight and Herts needed the remaining two matches to win. It was nail biting!

Rebecca  Earl won her match 3 &1 to level the singles scores at 2.5-2.5. Honor Keilty was the last Herts player left on the course and had been dormie 3 down. She then proceeded to win 16,17 & 18 to half her match!

Herts beat Norfolk 5 - 4  making it 8 - 8 in points won by each team over the five days.  In this situation, the winner is decided by the number of games won over the course of the week.  Norfolk had won 29 games to Herts 27 games. 

Rebecca won the Mary Oliver brooch for most points won over the week (4.5) pipping Ellen and Anna who had 4.25 each and Honor who had 4.

Captain Denise Fiori said: "The Herts team were brilliant and every player contributed and fought every step of the way and gave all they could.  We were all delighted with the support from all the caddies and supporters who travelled over to Aspley Guise and send a huge thank you."

The squad was as follows: