East Region County Match Days 2026

June 26, 2026

Hertfordshire finish in 3rd place in recent County Match Days event played at St Ives GC in Cambridgeshire

Report from Womens 1st Team Manager Aly Nedza;

This year’s County Match Days were held earlier in the season following a change in the National Finals format. Matches of x3 Singles & x2 Foursomes are contested against all the opposing counties over 3 days, whereby this year one winner would go onto the National Finals now held in July. The squad was therefore named prior to our County Champs, where several of them played and made it through to the top 16.

This year’s hosts, Cambs & Hunts, selected the windy and open course at St. Ives (Hunts) GC for the annual East Region event to compete against Beds, Essex, Norfolk, Herts & Suffolk. Described as a links style course, very open and winds blowing in all directions. Their bunkers are lined with sleepers, interspersed with grass. Following several successful practice rounds with the squad and Team Assistant Pro Shaun Collins, the course once again presented itself differently than previous due to recent heavy rainfall and every changing weather conditions. On arrival for the practice round on Thursday, the weather was awful with pouring rain and winds. A few brave holes were played by some of the squad, but we were thankful that the forecast for the actual tournament was a drier one. Haley Yerxa managed to successfully play a shot from the grassy bunker strip in an early match, before sliding down the sleeper! Unfortunately, not caught on camera by her caddy or the local photographer who did manage to capture some fab pictures of the squad.

The tournament started with Hertfordshire V Bedfordshire on Friday morning where the squad won all 5 matches. Rookie Amelia Parker, fresh from her successful performance at County Champs was paired with Kelly Cooke (Letchworth) to take the battle to the 18^th to win 1 up as too did rookie Sophie Brooke (East Herts) & Amiya Raja (Moor Park).A gamble by manager Aly Nedza as they only met at the practice round with Amiya being in the USA. They started shakily going 3 down through 3, so fought back brilliantly to take the win on 18. Haley, Mawgan and Tala all led with strong wins over their opponents.

With spirits raised, Herts took on last year’s winners Norfolk in the afternoon. With Norfolk having lost to Essex in the morning, they pulled out all the stops against Herts, with renowned golfers, Allesbrook, Mills and Tarbard facing Haley Yerxa, Mawgan Vater & Kelly Cooke. Unfortunately, after hard fought matches we narrowly lost all three. However, our foursomes’ pairings saw Alison Franklin (Harpenden) and Debbie Lear (Hadley Wood) beat Norfolk’s Capt. Jo Herd & Laura Todd, while Amiya Raja rekindling the pairing with Tala Clarke (Knebworth) were again successful in winning, having beaten Amelie Marling & Ruby Patterson, to give an overall score of 3-2 loss to Norfolk.

Not to be despondent from our loss to the reigning Champions, the team picked themselves up to defeat Cambs/Hunts on a very cold windy Saturday morning. Haley secured a comfortable win of 7&6 over her opponent, followed by Tala who battled for her win on 18 after a fantastic par/birdie performance. Credit must also go to Sophie Brooke who having gone 1 down on 17, pulled off the most amazing shot from within a copse of gorse to halve her match on 18. With Amiya & Debbie narrowly losing on 18 and the session standing at A/S for both counties, Cooke and Parker were heading down the 18^th having been dormy 3 to be dormy 1. On approach to the green with everyone watching, Aly advised Kelly to just do it and bring home the half…. Amelia Parker (out of earshot) took her stance and pitched perfect a shot into the par 5, leaving Cooke the tap in birdie for the half and overall win against Cambs & Hunts.

The windy weather continued to prevail for the afternoon, so fresh legs were brought in against Suffolk. Alison & Esther Strous (WGCGC) and Ruby Estherbrook (Bishopp’s Stortford) joined the squad. Tala again played steady to take another win, with Ruby narrowly missing out. Haley competed against former Pro Alice Barlow, who made the most amazing eagle on the par 4 13^th, to keep their match like ping pong! With Yerxa 1 up going down 18, her tee shot went a tad wayward, to allow Barlow back in for an honourable draw. With Brooke & Vater playing at the back and winning 6&5, the match rested on the Strous’s. With a 3&1 victory, Herts finished on a high beating Suffolk 3 ½ – 1 ½ .

Once again, the final day set the stage for a battle between Herts, Essex and Norfolk. With Essex having won all their matches and Herts and Norfolk losing just one of theirs it was all to play for and Herts needed a convincing win over Essex.

Optimism was high early on as Haley went out first and destroyed Lizzie Taylor 8&6. With Cooke next and having topped it off the first tee to just make the fairway and secure a halved hole, she then continued to battle until the very end, when having gone 3 down, she once again fought back and secured a half. Clarke fought well against Emily Dixon, to unfortunately land in one of the infamous drainage ditches where relief was not given on the 17^th, this was her downfall where she lost 3&1, it being her only loss of the tournament and where she rightly won the Mary Oliver Brooch for most points won throughout the tournament.

Unfortunately, the foursomes of The Strous’s and Vater & Brooke was not to work with both matches went Essex’s way. An overall win to Essex 3 ½ – 1 ½ made them this year’s champions.

Norfolk having a 5-0 victory against Beds, jumped to 2^nd place above Herts where we finished 3^rd. An upward trend for the county and one we hope to continue going into next year where the top two counties will be put forward from the East region to the National Finals.

A huge thank you to my squad and all those who have supported me once again throughout this journey. As a volunteer, I cannot thank everyone enough.

2026 Squad