Dylan Shaw-Radford placed an exclamation point on his stellar individual performance for Halifax-Huddersfield with a hole-in-one as the Yorkshire Inter-District Union League champions edged Harrogate 20-16 at Halifax Bradley Hall.

He teamed with Huddersfield clubmate Adam Walker to record a thumping 8&7 win in the morning foursomes and then aced the 192-yard par-3 ninth on his way to a 7&5 singles victory.

Three other players – Huddersfield's Habib Khan and Tom Green plus George Hanson, of Crosland Heath – also returned much-needed maximums against a visiting side that belied its standing as the second-bottom side going into the match.

Walker and home club player Chris Mather were unbeaten on the day, each with a win and a half, Mather having helped bring home arguably the most crucial triumph of the encounter when teaming with Green in the anchor match in the foursomes that gave Frank Greaves's side 6-6 parity at lunch.

placeholder image — Halifax Bradley Hall's Chris Mather.

Halifax-Huddersfield came out on top in five of the first seven singles, and halved another, to take control of the outcome although the narrow margin by which they succeeded means East Riding now sit top by virtue of a slightly better match points difference.

East Riding trounced Bradford 29-7 at Hull, Leeds got the better of hosts York 21-15 at The Oaks, and Teesside climbed off the table's floor – leapfrogging Harrogate - with a surprise 19-17 downing of Sheffield, who only three years ago won the championship with a clean sweep.

Greaves, who revealed that Shaw-Radford's hole-in-one came at the same time as Khan was eagling the 327-yard 10th to give his side a massive double boost, said: “We were tested. Harrogate, although near the bottom, have had several close results and the games in those matches were close as well.

“The course condition [bone-hard and fast running fairways] was a leveller and I was without Josh Bailes and Connah Judson.

“Harrogate have some good players and are developing juniors and the addition of Skipton to their union at the beginning of 2024 has boosted their pool.”

Greaves, who had given a debut to Huddersfield's Dan Henbest, recent winner of the union's Jubilee Trophy, added: “I got the result from the top six singles I expected and at one point it was 17-9. However, it got a bit tighter than I required.”

The title holders' next task is a trip to face York at Pike Hills on August 3, and Greaves commented: “York will not be an easy match with two or three county players in their line-up.”

Leaders East Riding will match up against Sheffield at Wath, Leeds and Bradford meet at Headingley, and Teesside tackle Harrogate at Wilton.