Ulverston's Luke Walker and Furness' Rob Spence were part of the Cumbria team that began their season in the Daily Telegraph Golf League with victory against Northumberland last Saturday.

After closely contested morning and afternoon events at Gosforth Golf Club, on the outskirts of Newcastle, Cumbria took the honours by a single point overall, 9.5 to 8.5.

Walker convincingly won both the matches he was involved in during the fixture, but team regular Spence couldn't quite hit the heights in a contest that went right down to the wire.

The morning foursomes of six matches resulted in a one-point lead and in the afternoon, 12 two-ball matches finished all square.

One of the highlights of a long day's golf was a victory in the morning for Walker and his partner Richard Mewse from Workington GC, who convincingly beat the top Northumbrian pairing 5 and 4.

In the afternoon singles, despite a dramatic change in the weather, Walker (by 3 and 2) was too good for a very fine young golfer from Hexham, Matty Lamb, whose handicap is currently +5.

Spence unfortunately didn’t show what he is known to be capable of on the day against very stiff opposition, particularly in the singles where his opponent was competing in his 101st contest.

Other results in the foursomes saw wins for Kieran Waters and Stephen Jopson from Carlisle by one hole, Mike Parker (Penrith) and Lee Sturrock (Brampton) by 2 and 1 while James Atkinson (Kendal) and Daren Whitfield (Penrith) halved their match.

In the singles there were also wins for Mewse, Jopson, Parker and Sturrock.

In the end, Cumbria team deserved the victory, which was thoroughly enjoyed by the whole team and much appreciated by the supporters who had made the long journey to the North East.

A nail-biting finish in the last match went all the way to the 18th green ,where Simon Young from Seascale chipped and putted for a one-shot win over his opponent who had represented Northumberland 125 times over the years.

Next up for Cumbria in the competition will be a home match against Cheshire, which will be held at Carlisle on Sunday, June 15, with play due to get underway at 9:30am.