The Third point came from 14 year old Iain MacKay and 15 year old Jamie Calvert, who held their nerve to win at the last.

The singles appeared to be going all our way, with Mike Pell 2 up at the turn despite his opponent being two under par! By the end, this match of 8 birdies and one eagle was decided in Derbyshire's favour by our three putt at 18.

In match 2, Robert Owens, the hero of Moseley, was up against a high finisher in the McEvoy, but somehow held on only to 3 putt the last after his opponent also messed up, to finish all square. Another good result for Robert.

Daanyal Spalding and Adam Lumley were next and neither were troubled, winning 5/4 and 4/3 respectively.

Both Max Martin and Louie Pett were behind for the first 12 holes or so but both turned up the gas to win on 17. At this stage we had 7 ? points and with match 7 - 5 up after 12 the match was all over ? or was it?

A combination of appalling luck, e. g. a ball bouncing on a sprinkler and going out of bounds, a Derbys holed pitch, then a bounce out of the woods at 16, caused debutant to become a little unnerved, leading to 3 putts at 17 and a pitch into a bunker at 18, meant a 1 down loss.

Matches 8 and 10 were lost by this time but Iain MacKay, our 14 year old debutant, who was playing the easy winner of the Midland Schools on Friday, levelled his match at 16, only to catch the branch of a tree with his second to 17 to cause a bogey, trumped by an excellent sand save from his opponent.

A half in par at 18 was not enough. 7 1/2 - 7 1/2.

As always in a halved match that could have been won, disappointment. Would we have taken a half on Saturday night? You bet we would!