Fresh Faces for Yorkshire Men

There’s a real sense of a changing-of-the-guard as the Yorkshire Men’s team gears up for the 2024 season, with a mouth-watering match against the 2020protour stars at Rotherham on Monday April 8 first up.

The off-season plans of Captain David Appleyard’s (pictured) haven’t been helped by coaching sessions being lost due to the weather, as his men – and boys in some cases – look to repeat their stellar performances of last year.

A fantastic second-round comeback sneaked the Northern title away from Cheshire on the Isle of Man, before a tense, rain-soaked victory at the England County Championships at Southport & Ainsdale.

New faces are certain as Appleyard takes stock of changed circumstances.

“The plan is to hopefully continue the success that we had in 2023 and maintain and build on that,” he said.

“We’ve obviously lost George Ash and Josh Berry to the pro ranks, while Max Berrisford has gone to America to flight school, to try get his commercial pilot’s licence. We’ve lost Max until the middle of the year.

“And then there are demands on players who did well last year, Tom Osborne, Jack Whaley’s at college in the States, Ben Brown with being the English Amateur champion – their time and commitments might change this year depending on what they’re asked to do, and play in events where they can get World Ranking points.”

Dylan Shaw-Radford, along with Ben Brown, is in the England Men’s squad.

Rotherham’s Whaley, who was runner-up in the Welsh Youth Open and a semi-finalist in the English Amateur Championship last year, finished 2023 in some style. The Dalton State student had two wins and a runner-up finish in his last four US college events of the year. He will be a big miss for Appleyard’s team.

“That’s where we are but in a sense it’s good for Yorkshire because it shows that we’re doing something right and our players are producing in the amateur game. It shows that what we’re doing at the coaching level and in the background is helping them achieve their success.

“We’ve brought a number of people into the coaching set-up, some of the juniors who are now on the men’s radar, so players like Jack Northgraves, Jake Wallis, George Hanson – we’ve invited them to come along to the winter coaching sessions so that we can keep an eye on them and bring them into the team environment.

“We’ve also invited Dan Norman from Teesside, Sam Claypole came the other week – he had a great season last year winning the Leeds Player of the Year and Matchplay title. Habib Khan from the Huddersfield area had a good season so we’ve broadened our net a little bit and involved more people, because we know potentially we might not have all the top players available for all the matches. We need to make sure our squad is big enough to cover those demands.”

Regarding the 2020protour match at Rotherham, he said: “It’s something that Adam Walker approached myself and Jonathan [Plaxton] about at the end of last year. We found a date and thought it would be a good way to get the boys a competitive fixture and get them ready for 10 days later when we face Lincolnshire in a competitive friendly.

“It gives us a chance to give some of the people we’ve brought into the winter coaching a chance to see how they do.

“It’s good to play against professionals and our players can see where their game is compared to the pros on the 2020 tour. I’d like to think it could continue for some years to come.”

The contest will be six fourball better ball matches, but all games will play 18 holes, with an aggregate score deciding the outcome.

2020protour vs Yorkshire Men

1 Sam Bairstow/George Mason vs Tom Osborne/Charlie Daughtrey

2 George Ash/Josh Berry vs Jake Sowden/Aaron Brettell

3 Dan Brown/John Parry vs Ben Brown/Lucas Martin

4 Simon Dyson/Chris Hanson vs George Hanson/Jack Northgraves

5 Jigger Thomson/Joe Dean vs George Heath/Jake Wallis

6 Nick Marsh/Marco Penge vs Dan Thomas/Ollie Smith