Past and Present Matches

1895 to 1906

Regional

As the governing body from 1895 to 1906 was restricted to administering the Midland Amateur Strokeplay Championship and the Club Team Championship, no official matches could be played.

County

The first matches played by a Midland County were on the 5th and 11th of October 1900 when Nottinghamshire played Yorkshire at Bulwell and Huddersfield respectively.
The first match played between Counties in the Midlands was between Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire after a challenge had been made by Notts in 1900. This appeared to take some time before actually taking place - there is a record of a match on the 14th May 1904 when Lincolnshire beat Nottinghamshire by 21 to 5.
Prior to the formation of the Midland Golf Association matches had been played in 1906 by the newly-formed Counties with the following results:-

Worcestershire beat Gloucestershire at Minchinhampton and also at Malvern
Worcestershire beat Nottinghamshire at Kings Norton and lost at Hollinwell
Worcestershire lost to Warwickshire at Kings Norton.

From 1906, County matches have been played on a regular basis, apart from the War Years.

1906 to 1914

Unfortunately, records of matches played by the Regional team before the first World War have not come to light except for the first match versus the Welsh Golf Union which was played in 1913 over the Hollinwell course resulting in a win for the Midlands by 8 matches to 7.

1914-1919

War Years - no matches played.

1920- 1939

From 1920 to the outbreak of war in 1939, as many as six matches a year were often played by the regional team. Typical opponents were as follows:-

1939-1945

War Years - no matches played.

1945 to present day

After the war, it appeared to be more difficult to arrange matches. The long-standing annual match versus the Midland Professionals was continued until 1968 when it was held at Willesley Park, the top match being between Geoffrey Marks and Peter Butler. However, after that match, a number of Professionals stated that they were not now able to leave their Clubs at week-ends, and the match has not been played since that date.
Thereafter, for a number of years, the only annual match remaining was the match versus the South-West which was first played in 1925 and 1926 and then continually from 1950 to the present date - up to and including 2001 a total of 52 matches with the Midlands leading by 34 to 19.
However a new opponent has now been found, and from 2001 an annual match versus the British Universities is being played (who also play the South-Western Counties Association).