Dalgleish right despite Pennsylvania pain.

Byline: Kevin Cademy

I DON''T agree with the criticism levelled at the Great Britain & Ireland captain Colin Dalgleish for fielding a team composed entirely of Walker Cup rookies. I have no problem with that selection. As our Northumberland champion, Chris Paisley (pictured right), proved with two great battling singles performances against top US golfers, if you are picking the best players then why not? The things that struck me most were the bigger crowds than I expected - Chris halved his first singles match at the last in front of 2,000 spectators - and the standards set. The organisation was amazing and some of the golf was fantastic.

On the first day Chris only played the singles, against Drew Weaver. It rained birdies and Chris was two down after five holes. But by the time Chris won 14, he was one up. Weaver halved 15 with an unbelievable up and down then won 16 and 17 to go one up.

When Chris squared the match in front of all those people, it was with an eight-footer at the 18th.

Britain went into the second day 8-4 down with some long awaited sunshine, a testing breeze, championship pin placements and greens reading 15 on the stimp meter. Chris & Dale Whitnell were beaten 5&4 in the foursomes by Nathan Smith and Peter Uihlein. The Americans only needed two points out of 10 by the time the last singles session came round and they eventually won the match 16'-9'. Chris played a top US player, Bud Cauley, who was in red hot form, having won all his three matches. There was never more than one hole in it with the lead going back and forth. The shots all day had been of the highest standard.

All square with three to play Chris missed all three greens following difficult second shots. But he still secured another half because his short game was sensational.

That fighting spirit from Chris was what stopped Bud walking away for the Walker Cup with a 100% record. All in all, what a great weekend. It was an experience I''ll never forget - especially as a boy from Northumberland had done us proud with a great personal performance.

Meanwhile, I am grateful to Chris Robinson, the founder of the Northumberland Junior Golfing Association, for supplying me with the list of our county''s players who have played in the Walker Cup. It reads: 1957 Alan Thirlwell (Gosforth), 1965 Gordon Clark (Whitley Bay), 1977 and 1981 Peter Deeble (Alnmouth), 1987 David Curry (Prudhoe), and 2009 Chris Paisley (Stocksfield).

Kevin Cademy-Taylor is Northumberland captain and watched Chris Paisley play at the Walker Cup at Merion in Pennsylvania