Star duo return to Union team

Frank Greaves has been reappointed Halifax-Huddersfield Union team boss for 2018 and should have two talented players back in his ranks.
Actions from the Hx/Hudds Union matchplay quarter finals at Bradley Hall Golf Club.
Pictured is Aaron Schnacke from HuddersfieldActions from the Hx/Hudds Union matchplay quarter finals at Bradley Hall Golf Club.
Pictured is Aaron Schnacke from Huddersfield
Actions from the Hx/Hudds Union matchplay quarter finals at Bradley Hall Golf Club. Pictured is Aaron Schnacke from Huddersfield

Aaron Schnacke and Sam Bridges, who play off scratch or better, have indicated they want to be part of the squad for this year’s Yorkshire Inter-District League programme.

Schnacke, who flirted with the professional ranks in 2016 but swiftly recovered his amateur status, is heading home after a year working as a greenkeeper in Australia. He previously fulfilled a similar role at Halifax West End.

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He is among a select band of players who have won the local union’s match play and stroke play titles and he has previously played at the top of the representative team’s order.

Halifax Bradley Hall product Bridges played at Headingley last year but will be living back in Calderdale and he has told Greaves that he is keen to play for Halifax-Huddersfield again this summer.

Greaves and Union president John Turner were hosting a meeting for the players at Crow Nest Park last night (Thursday) to discuss plans for the season.

A warm-up match has been fixed for Bradley Park on April 29 which could take the form of a ‘probables v possibles’ match.

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Bradley Park will be the venue for Halifax-Huddersfield’s second match of 2018 and the first at home. Leeds will be the visitors.

Greaves, a past member at West End and Todmorden but now playing out of Huddersfield, believes his side should not settle for being also-rans and is keen to put a long-term system in place to gain success.

Halifax-Huddersfield finished a promising third in 2017, drawing their opener against Leeds at Wakefield before the remaining six fixtures went with home advantage.

Greaves’s side finished with a bang, beating a Sheffield side who have been champions for six of the last seven years by 19-17 at West End in September. The South Yorkshire side had already been crowned champions at that stage but nevertheless still sent a powerful side to the Norton Tower club.

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Sheffield will have a quick chance of revenge in the opener at Worksop on Sunday, May 20 but Greaves is keen to have his side properly prepared in a bid to spring an upset.

The junior team manager’s position is yet to be confirmed although Tommy Ward, who has done the job since 2010, has indicated that he is willing to carry on.

Halifax-Huddersfield Union team fixtures: May 20, Sheffield at Worksop; June 10, Leeds at Bradley Park; June 24, Bradford at Dewsbury District; July 8, East Riding at Hull; August 5, Harrogate at Bradley Hall; August 19, York at Forest Park; September 2, Teesside at Meltham.

WEST END’S annual men’s dinner, postponed last Friday because of bad weather, has been rearranged for Friday, February 16.

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