MCDONALD ELLON WIN NORTHERN COUNTIES CUP

Left to right: Kevin Duncan, Ross McKen, Chris Gilbert and Adam Dunton, winners of the Northern Counties Cup at Royal Aberdeen.

Y0ung North-east golfer Adam Dunton is having a season to remember. He won his first Scotland cap against South Africa during the summer and on Saturday Adam was a key man in the McDonald Ellon Golf Club team of four who won the Northern Counties Cup double foursomes team match-play tournament over three days at Royal Aberdeen's Balgownie links.
The Northern Counties Cup is one of the oldest tournaments on the Scottish golf calendar. First played in 1900 when it was hosted by Royal Aberdeen whose secretary had played a leading part in its auguration, the tournament returns to Balgownie every four years.
The Ellon quartet of Adam Dunton, Chris Gilbert, Ross McKen and Kevin Duncan had looked potential winners when the various line-ups in the field of 40 teams were announced and they played to their potential.
They knocked out Newmachar - winners for the past two years - in the Saturday morning semi-finals by a combined four holes and then beat Fortrose and Rosemarkie by five holes in the final.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie had beaten Nairn by nine holes in their semi-final. That Fortrose and Rosemarkie won was no surprise but the margin of victory was.
In the final, Ellon's McKen and Duncan finished five holes up on Mike MacDonald and Chris Gaittens of Fortrose and Rosemarkie.
That was the decisive match as the second-string tie between Gilbert and Dunton and Fortrose and Rosemarke's Alan Cameron and Lewis Reid finished all square.


McKen and Duncan won the seventh, eighth and ninth to go three up - the key part of the match.
The first six holes had been very tight.
MacDonald and Gaittens won the 11th to be two down but they could not follow that success up.
McKen and Duncan won the 12th and 15th to go four up and they clinched a five-hole victory with a 2 at the short 17th where McKen played a five-iron tee shot to around 12ft and Duncan holed the putt.
In the second string match, Gilbert and Dunton lost the eighth, ninth and 10th to be one down after being two up in the early stages.
The 11th was halved in birdieds.
In a quality match, Gilbert and Dunton birdied the 13th to square the match.
Cameron and Reid won the 14th to go one up again but Gilbert and Dunton squared the match with a par at the 16th. The last two holes were halved.
Next year's Northern Counties Cup will be hosted by The Nairn Golf Club.
Gary Abel, the Elgin Golf Club secretary, was understudy to Eddie Sherwood, tournament secretary, for the first two days at Balgownie. Eddie has now retired after 12 years in the Northern Counties Cup post and it will be Gary running the show at Nairn in 2013.

SATURDAY'S RESULTS
SEMI-FINALS
McDonald Ellon bt Newmachar by four holes
Ross McKen and Kevin Duncan 0, Colin Simpson and Mike McKechnie 2.
Chris Gilbert and Adam Dunton 6, John Duff and Richard Barr 0.

Fortrose and Rosemarkie bt Nairn by nine holes.
Mike MacDonald and Chris Gaittens 10, Fraser Fotheringham and Anthony Burgess,
Alan Cameron and Lewis Reid 0, Bruce Thomson and Robert Smith 1.

FINAL
McDonald Ellon bt Fortrose and Rosemarkie by five holes
McKen and Duncan 5, MacDonald and Gaittens 0
Gilbert and Dunton 0, Cameron and Reid 0.

Beaten finalists Fortrose and Rosemarkie with (centre) Eddie Sherwood who has now retired as tournament secretary of the Northern Counties Cup after 12 years.
Left to right, either side of Eddie, are Mike MacDonald, Lewis Reid, Chris Gaittens and Allan Cameron.