Yorkshire golf: Romanby duo edge alliance win at Ripon City with stunning back nine

They had tied at the top of the leaderboard, but amassed no fewer than 24 points coming home.

The pair shared the work of gaining points against the card on a day that had seen snow preventsfour pairs from Harrogate and Otley reaching the course.

Beadling carded net birdies at holes four, seven and 10 and Ient complemented them with a birdie/net eagle at the 11th.

A fourth net birdie followed from Beadling at the 12th, Ient then producing a gross birdie at the next.

He repeated the trick at the 16th and, after the pair suffered their only one-pointer at the 17th, Ient grabbed a net birdie at the last.

Although the course was soft in parts, which was only to be expected after the run of bad weather, the greens were assessed as being “fabulous for the time of year” by organisers and, played off the yellow tees, the course was not playing short.

Willow Valley GC’s midweek Stableford kicked off their 2016 competition calendar and John Freeman returned an excellent score of 39pts to take first place, just one point ahead of Chris Richold.

Twelve-handicapper Freeman played solidly throughout and also enjoyed back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth holes.

Chris Bailey finished in third place, a result that moves him to the top of the Winter Order of Merit with only one event remaining, the Tuesday Stableford on March 15.