Pictured - Andy Jones driving on the 16th, County Captain Andy Kearns with new County Secretary Graham Hayes and Warwickshire Union President Jim Dean, and Bill Nicolson. Although Warwickshire were missing four leading players, this was a strong team of eight to face a Northants team which included Gary Boyd who has just left England Juniors after a very successful start to his golfing career. With the singles matches all finished bar one, it was looking like a halved match with Bill Nicolson two down with five to play against Roger Green.

The morning lead came from wins in the first three matches, the notable victory coming from Ben Groutage and Ben Stafford who were up against the two ‘veterans’ of the Northants team Neil Connolly and Tony Lord. The opposition were making recoveries from all over the place but as in matches one and three, the two Bens won with some excellent and consistent play from tee to green.

Having lost in the morning to a pairing which included Boyd, Ian Stranks fund the Northants youngster too much in the afternoon losing 6&5. Ben Groutage missed fairways and could not recover and he would lose 4&3, as did Ben Stafford although having been 6 down after 9 holes in a very scrappy start, he made the score more respectable.

The good news for Warwickshire came in the singles matches one and eight. Paul Randle was impressive in a 5&4 win against Connolly whilst the best golf of the day came from Louis Meryon, playing at No 8. Louis won 4&3 and he threw five birdies at his opponent, including three red numbers in the first five holes.

The overall match was levelled through the consistency from Andy Jones, playing at No 2. He was pulled back when he lost the 14th but a win came at the 17th and it was now back to Bill Nicolson to see if he could turn around his match for the overall triumph.

Bill stuffed his approach at the 14th to barely a foot for a winning birdie and then when he found the green at the 15th, a par three, his match was all square. Always in command up the 16th, Bill finally had to sink a tricky 4ft putt for another hole win after not chipping close and both player three putted the 17th on the Spring green of the very difficult par three.

Playing safe up by sending his tee shot up the 1st fairway, Nicolson was just short of the putting surfaces on the 18th. He chipped and putted for a four leaving his Northants opponent a 12ft birdie chane to halve their match but that half at the 17th had been good enough to give Warwickshire the match win, to keep up the winning habit.

The full match scorecard can be found in Warwickshire Men | Teams | 1st Team | Results

The Warwickshire Boys team, captained by Andy Sullivan won the friendly v Notts. The result was 10 1/2 v 7 1/2.

After the morning foursomes Warks were one point behind, but the team performance in the singles turned the scores around. The 8 to 4 singles result showed the strength in depth that still shows through even though the team selected played several boys from the U16 team of last year.

'The team spirit is also still as strong and I am looking forward to a great team performance in the 4 counties', said Team Manager John Simpson.