A-Team Crowned Premier League Champions 2018

Apologies for the delay in writing this the final A-Team Report of 2018... I’ve only just torn myself away from the media circus and rockstar celebrations. As many of you have probably already heard by now, it gives me immense pleasure and pride to officially inform you that Ashton’s A-Team are the ODGL Premiership Champions for 2018. Boom Indeed!!

Final Standings:
Ashton (played) 10 // 48 (pts)
Denton (played) 10 // 47 (pts)
Werneth (played) 10 // 38 (pts)
Dukinfield (played) 10 // 38 (pts)
Blackley (played) 10 // 35 (pts)
Crompton (played) 10 // 32 (pts)

It’s been 4 long years since we last won the A-League title and since that time the league format has changed significantly. It has been split into 2 separate divisions with 6 clubs in each; forming a Premiership and a Championship with the bottom 3 and top 3 respectively, involved in a promotion and relegation battle each year. We’ve just completed the end of the second year of this new format; so you could argue after 2017’s inaugural proceedings, promotions and relegations the Premiership now contains the 6 strongest of the 12 clubs competing in the ODGL League. In a nutshell, every fixture this year saw us pitted against really strong, competitive opposition without the occasional respite week of years gone by. So to find ourselves sat on top of the elite pile is a great achievement for our club and extremely gratifying to boot!

The golfing gods were definitely on our side in the crucial final match away against Crompton & Royton as (thankfully) we only needed 2 points (from the 8 on offer) to get our hands on the Trophy. A special mention here for Glynn Taylor and Josh Beresford who secured the title with a handsome 5&3 victory in what were quite shocking conditions in which to play such an important final match. It was very much home advantage having to play on greens hardly fit for golf after badly executed greens maintenance work meant we were faced with the challenge of golf’s first ever minus stimpmeter readings. Needless to say I would have been going somewhat 'APE' if this had conspired to ruin our entire season’s hard work.

I would like to congratulate the league’s defending champions Denton, who put up a proud fight and applied the pressure right up to the last match in the last fixture. I have a feeling they will be very strong again next year! To finally win the league by one single point over 10 matches is indicative of every single player in this year’s squad playing a vital role and holing clutch putts under pressure at crucial moments. Thank you to every single one of you, you know who you are, I have kissed you all (several times... possibly some more than others). You are far too many to mention.... but by'eck I'm going to (in no particular order):

Mike Kelly, Glynn Taylor, Ian Duncan, Mike Barlow, Andy Lomas, Jacob Hall, Adrian Reece, Luke Kelly, Frasier Sidebottom, Simon Craig, Sam Carroll, Darren Shenton, Josh Ainscough, Josh Beresford, Jefferson Turner, Charlie Casson, Graham Kay, Martin O’Keefe, Lee Butterworth, Darren Sharkey and Rob Nuttall. The team could not have done it without each of you playing your part when it most counted. Every single one of you are Champions but more importantly top top fellas x

It’ll soon be May again... I’ve already started working long into the nights planning the defense of our crown! It won’t be easy; everyone will want to take us down and strip us of our precious title, sounds like a job for......... the A-Team.

Finally, the whole team would like to thank the membership for their brilliant support, it's always greatly appreciated. We sincerely hope you take as much pride in your team's success as we do representing all of you guys as well as our wonderful club.

It’s been emotional...

Martin Wild
A-Team Captain