Dorset County Golf Union
South West Girls Inter-Counties Championship 2025
This years’ South West Inter Counties (SWIC) was held at Broadstone Golf Club from Sunday 3rd August to Wednesday 8th August.
SWIC is for junior girls from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It is played in a similar format to Ladies County Week, three singles and 2 foursomes. Each County play host to the event every six years. This year our team was:
Suzy Cribb (Captain)
Honor Johnson
Scarlett Phillips
Evie Brown
Lily-Paige Littlewood
Hollie Levens
Amelia Slavin
Alexis Owen
Maya Simmonds
Daisy Best
We usually only take nine girls but unfortunately Suzy hurt her arm on practice day and we were very lucky that Daisy was available to play and stepped in at very short notice.
We were very fortunate in playing at Broadstone Golf Club, even though the weather before the match days hadn’t been kind to the golf course, it was in excellent condition.
Sunday afternoon is practice day and allows all the girls the opportunity to play the course prior to the tournament starting.
Monday arrived and the weather wasn’t looking good, windy and rain at times. Our first match was against Somerset, who we were sharing accommodation with at Canford School. We expected it to be a very hard match. Honor won 1 up in a very close and exciting match against Abi Moore, Evie won 3/2, Scarlett lost 6/4. The foursomes were new pairings and they all played really well together – Hollie and Maya won 6/5 but Amelia and LP lost 2 up. All very close matches and exciting to watch. We won the match 3/2.
Monday afternoon we played Cornwall and we were giving a lot of shots, we all knew it would be very hard but the girls went out determined. Honor won 1 up, Amelia won 1 up, and Alexis won 5/3. Our winning pair in the morning Hollie and Maya lost 3/2, with Maya hurting her back and not being able to swing properly. LP and Daisy won 3/1. Overall, we won 4/1, great work team.
Tuesday morning and our first match was against Devon and we were giving in some matches 14 shots. Evie played really well but lost 2 down, Scarlett won 1 up and Hollie won 1 up. Amelia and Alexis lost 5/3 and LP and Daisy lost 6/5. We lost 2/3.
Tuesday afternoon another tough day we played Gloucestershire, closer handicaps very tough matches. Honor won 4/3, Evie lost a very close match 1 down, Hollie lost 5/4. Scarlett & Alexis lost 5/4 and Maya and Daisy 2/3. Therefore, a loss of 1/4.
Wednesday morning our last match was against Wiltshire and again we were giving lots of shots, in foursomes, we gave 14 shots.
Honor won 4/2, Scarlett won 2/1, Daisy won 4/3, Evie and LP lost 2 up our last match of Hollie and Amelia won 5/4 an amazing performance from all the girls.
Overall, we came second to Devon, congratulations to Devon.
I would like to extend my thanks to Jon Dry, Ben Hunter for allowing us to use their fantastic course and Ben for always being there when I had questions. To Danielle and her catering team, what an amazing job you did. Food was great, always hot and on time and tasty. To the greens staff, considering the weather we have had this year the course was amazing.
A big thank you to Jacob Hunter and his team in the professional shop, we have been very lucky in having Jacob and Ben Cannon coaching our first and second teams this year and they have achieved so much with the girls.
An especially big thank you to Broadstone Lady Captain Sue Grieves and her team of amazing ladies. Thank you to Broadstone members for being so understanding with seeing fifty-four girls on their course and lots of cars in the car park.
To Hannah Brown and Lynsey Phillips running the tournament office – what a great job, first time they have had to run a big competition.
Jo Hadley, has been running around doing everything, ball spotting on the first, making sure all the food was ready, talking to people and keeping everyone calm. Thank you, Rod Thomson, for starting the girls and being so supportive of them.
Thank you to all the ball spotters too many to name, but we appreciated your time and help.
My house helpers – Sue Northover and Hannah Brown, looking after nine girls is not the easiest of tasks but I think everyone enjoyed their time at Canford School.
To the parents of these amazing girls, thank you for supporting them as individuals and a team, golf is a very time-consuming activity and you all give up so much for the girls – thank you. Also, to Sophie Chapman, Harper Bye and the other very young Dorset junior girls, I hope you enjoyed the golf and it made you want to play for the team.
This is my last competition for Dorset after fourteen years. I have been very lucky in being involved with so many girls, parents, clubs – at times it has been challenging but on the whole delightful. Working with Mike Dodd and the other coaches has been inspirational, their dedication and skills that they have passed on is wonderful. Without Mike and his Golf Academy we would not have the number of girls in golf that we have. When Mike and I started working together we had seven girls and this has increased to over forty girls playing golf.
I am very proud of every team that we have put out over those years, some are still playing golf, some are coming back to the game. A number have gone to university, here and in America, chasing their dream. It has been a privilege to be involved with so many wonderful girls and I wish them all the very best for their futures.
Sheila Davidge
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