Seven over after that first nine, Richard then assumed a 'Nick Faldo-Muirfield' golfing world state-of-mid, and rallied with nine straight pars.

'I said to myself that is was a marathon, not a sprint, that I had to keep going. It was crunch time mentally.'

Paul Randle, out at no 6 for the Bears, was fairing even worse for his first nine and rallied similarly with two birdies to match Oddy's 78.

To complete our first round total of 447, we included a pair of 75s from Chris Doughill and Jamie Carney, a 72 from Rob Browning and a 69 from Andy Sullivan. Jamie rued an OOB on the 10th, whilst Chris missed a couple of times in completely the wrong places.

Rob had four birdies and lost his shots round the greens, whilst Andy was -5 after 11 only to bogey the 17th, and the 18th where he flew the green onto the club's patio.

The lead was 18 shots away -

Shropshire & Herefordshire 429

Leics & Rutland 437

Staffordshire 441

Derbyshire 444

Lincolnshire 446

Of note were the 68 for Jonathan Gidney (Shrops), a 67 from Jamie Brittain (Shrops) and the finishing scores from Leics from Charlie Ford (68) and David Gibson (70).

A target of six rounds of 72 (or a combined total of the same) would give our county a good chance of reeling in such a big lead. but only a chance. As it was, it would have been good enough by one stroke. We eventually came up nine shots short.

Andy Sullivan rallied from a +3 front nine to finish with a 72.

'I was dreadful round the greens', said Rob Browning of his respectable 75

'I frittered shots away on approaches into the greens', said Chris Doughill (74) - 'Four three putts - I could have been so much better', added Jamie Carney (73).

'I've had plenty of chances - I couldn't get the ball in the hole', said Paul Randle (75) and his compatriot in a poor start Richard Oddy was pleased with his 73, fully understanding that a course such as Sandwell needs playing, and several times, to fully understand where not to go.

That all added up to a respectable 442 and we were eroding the two leaders scores, but not by quite enough.

Derbyshire kept up a similarly good standard and would be just a couple of shots away. Lincolnshire posted a 70 and a 72 for 882 total, and that seemed to be close, but 'no cigar'.

Then up went two 73s on the scoreboard from the Leics tail of Ford and Gibson. They wouldn't win.

It was the 79 from the last Shropshire team member that shocked the now packed clubhouse As per being the home county, Staffordshire were seeming to rue the odd missed opportunity, accepting that they would be generous hosts and thanked for having provided a fine fine test for the other nine counties. Their first four afternoon scores of 73, 77, 74 qand 77 were nothing special.

Like a marathon run as a relay, Staffordshire had hidden their trump cards for their last two players, putting plerys taught by Usain Bolt to devastate the field, instead of respectable plodders. Firstly a 69 from Tony Cheese and then another, the same from Richard Prophet.

Few could believe it as the totals were added up and 880 was the winning score, for the host county Staffordshire, a win by two shots.

'Its been solid', said County Captain Louis Meryon, 'but we didn't know the course well enough, missing the greens in the wrong places just cost us and if you were in the wrong place above the hole, it could be three stabs from no-where.'

So Staffordshire will go to Chipping Sodbury this Autumn and we wish them the best of luck - and finishes like Prophet and Cheese were adept at providing.