Staff WriterLeicestershire & Rutland made golfing history on Sunday as they were crowned 2025 Men’s County Champions for the first time in the competition’s 99-year history at St Enodoc Golf Club. And they didn’t just sneak it – they stormed through the final day like a pub darts team that suddenly realised the trophy came with free Guinness.
Three of the four counties still had a shot at the title going into the afternoon singles, and for a while it looked like Lancashire were about to pull off a comeback that would have made Lazarus blush.
But Leicestershire & Rutland held their nerve, won all three of their matches, and in doing so became the first Midlands county to lift the silverware in 35 years.
The final leaderboard told the tale of the chaos: Kent finished runners-up, Gloucestershire nabbed third, and Lancashire, once looking like champions-in-waiting, somehow stumbled into fourth.
Captain’s words after the triumph
Leicestershire & Rutland skipper Richard Wale, one of only four players all week to win every singles match, summed it up with a grin as wide as the Camel Estuary: “There were leaderboards out there and our advisor was telling us just how close it was! We looked like we were never out of it, but right at the end there, we came good.
“It’s amazing, the lads are so excited about this. We’ve been practising and playing all season, eight games unbeaten – five league matches and three here – it’s going to be good fun tonight!
“We’ve had messages galore coming in from the lads at Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk – they all wanted us to win it as much as we did.
“Six of the lads work, with one playing golf full-time, so getting time off work and things like that, it’s a huge effort and I really appreciate it from the lads.”
A season for the ages
Eight matches unbeaten, three days of nerve-shredding golf, and a team that refused to blink when it mattered most – the Men’s County Championship rarely delivers a fairy tale, but 2025 will be remembered as the year Leicestershire & Rutland wrote one of their own.
The victorious team:
- Back row: James Billingham, Will Plant, Scott Wormleighton, Luke Burrows
- Front row: Martin Anderson, Richard Wale, Josh Rudkin
After 99 years of waiting, Leicestershire & Rutland’s name is finally etched on the trophy. Midlands golf, it seems, is very much back in business.
