Yorkshire’s players held their nerve and drained the pressure putts required to fend off a charge from Wiltshire and earn the title of English Senior Men’s County champions.

On a nervy final day at Rothley Park in Leicestershire, captain Andy King and his team got over the line courtesy of a 5-4 victory against Kent. Wiltshire had cranked up the heat on the white rose county by earlier running out convincing 6-3 winners against Warwickshire.

However, Yorkshire had control of their own destiny and duly notched the win that guaranteed them their third title at this level in five years.

At the start of play Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Kent were in with a shout of winning the crown.

At one stage in the afternoon with Kent and Yorkshire heading for a draw and Wiltshire homing in on a win, the smallest county in the finals were daring to dream of a fantastic triumph.

However, Yorkshire came strong in the final hour of play and topped the table with two wins and a draw from their three matches – beating Wiltshire on day one, drawing with Warwickshire and then claiming victory over Kent.

Wiltshire – making their first ever appearance at the finals – played superbly to bounce back from the opening day loss to the eventual champions by winning their final two matches in the round robin series.

The glory, though, belonged to Yorkshire after three days of excellent competition. With each match comprising three morning foursomes and six afternoon singles, Yorkshire’s unbeaten form over the three days meant they deserved the title which follows on from wins in 2017 and 2019.

For King, the victory was sweet after days fretting on behalf of his entire squad and hitting every shot from the sidelines. He said: “It feels absolutely fantastic. Whoever designed or invented this golf event – big congratulations to them! The players have loved playing in it and we love coming to this stage and competing and we’ll be trying to get here again next year. I am proud of the players – sometimes you need the tail to wag and the lads at the end of the order did the business for us.”

Those players at the tail King referred to were Andy Woodhead, Steve Cain and Dave Sanby.

Woodhead was in tears after clinching a 3&2 win against Kent’s Danny Holmes while the smiles on the faces of Sanby (5&4 win against Bob Florence) and Cain (6&4 against Phil Judge) were from ear to ear.

Yorkshire took a 2-1 lead in the afternoon singles from the morning foursomes with the pairings of Ian Clarke and Woodhead and Ian Backhouse and Stephen East having put points on the board. That left them needing three points from six singles – duly delivered by Woodhead, Cain and Sanby.

For Wiltshire and their captain Nigel Phillips, it was a memorable week despite falling just short. They arrived here with the ambition of winning one of their matches. They left after posting two wins while Marlborough’s Jeremy Tomlinson finished the finals as leading points scorer with five and a half out of six.

Kent finished third in the table with one win to show for their efforts, while Warwickshire finished fourth with a draw and two losses.

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Essex’s Charlie Croker birdied four of the final five holes to claim a stunning victory at the English Boys’ County Champion of Champions.

Playing on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa Golf Club, the 15-year-old posted rounds of 71 and 68 for a 36-hole total of 139 (-7) and a one shot victory over Cumbria’s Joey Hornby

The event featured the boys’ champions from 30 counties in England – and was once again a terrific advert for junior golf in this country. Croker, from Thorndon Park Golf Club, looked to have drifted out of contention when he carded a double bogey six at the third hole in his afternoon round. At that stage, he was six shots behind leader Hornby.

Hornby, playing alongside Croker, had signed for a six-under par round in the morning and had made a steady start to his second round. But as Hornby stayed on track with a series of pars, Croker jumped on board a birdie train. He picked up shots at the sixth, eighth and ninth, and then found some extra energy to go on a final charge He knocked in a birdie at the par-five, 14th, a six-footer at 15 was sunk, as was a similar length putt on 17.

As Croker made his way to the 18th tee there was a three-way tie for top spot. Hornby remained on six-under par alongside Croker, while Northumberland’s Mogan Blythe – in the group behind – was on a charge of his own. Four birdies on the stretch of holes from seven through 14 had put the Hexham golfer joint top of the leaderboard. Blythe had other chances too. A birdie putt on the 15th grazed the hole, his 12-footer on the 16th horseshoed out and a 10-footer on the penultimate hole was bang on line but short of pace. With all three players locked together on the same score it came down to who finished the strongest.

Hornby made his 16th par of the afternoon round on the final hole to stay at -6. Croker, found the green in two and easily two-putted for another birdie  That left Blythe needing a four for a play-off, but after finding two bunkers on the closing hole had to settle for a bogey six and a share of third spot alongside Lancashire’s Noah Cambridge.

After collecting his trophy, Croker said: ” I was a bit out of it after making a double on the third, but there was still hope. I was playing nicely and I did think there was still a chance I could go low and thankfully that’s what happened. I was proud of myself that after a bad start, I played really well coming in to win.”

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