Whist Spalding was worrying and working on general exams, for Wallace it was a summer of golf after two years at Solihull College completing his Diploma in Sport. The third contender had a very much more stressful past three months.

'I wanted to defend my Schools title', said Copt Heath's Patrick Skakel, 'and by the beginning of May I was down to 3.2, having lost in a play-off for that cup. I did say to myself at the beginning of the year though that my other goal was this, the Boys.'

Skakel's handicap stopped its downward path as soon as his A Levels started so for the last three months he has drifted back up to four, and played with half an eye on when he should be back at work with his books.

Skakel would have held the morning lead were it not for a triple bogey at one of Edgbaston's more notorious holes, the 6th a tough par four with OOB left which Skakel duly found. As it was he signed for a 69 to be just one back at lunch after five birdies. He continued that run with his start in the afternoon round -

'He was on fire', said playing partner Spalding who watched as Skalel birdied the first three before finding trouble again on the 6th and then at the 9th where Spalding got two shot back with his own wedge to 6ft and a downed putt.

Meanwhile Wallace wasn't making any headway, eventually completing his first nine of the afternoon in +1 but with news of what Skakel was doing filtering through to him, he responded by birdying his 10th, 13th and then 15th holes (that Edgbaston's 6th where he pitched a 9 iron to 6ft and slotted home the putt.

Spalding was now out of contention at +2 for the day but would keep his swing going, despite ever decreasing turn from his stiffening back, to win the U16s by seven shots.

With three holes to play, Skakel held a one shot lead courtesy of his birdie at the 11th. He was just short at the par four 16th with his tee-shot, and chipped to 8ft from where he promptly three putted. Meanwhile Wallace, playing on the other nine made par.

Skakel then hooked his second to the par five 17th into the trees and could not get to the front of the green in three. His chip and put missed so he was tied with Wallace who had a kick from a short approach to his 17th, Edgbaston's 8th, into a bunker from her he could not up-and-down.

Wallace hit his final tee shot on exactly the same line as in the morning, only to see it kick right into a fairway bunker. 200 yards away, Skakel was not in trouble from the tee but his approach was only just on the front of the green, some 30 yards from the flag. After pitching out of the bunker, Wallace hated the spin his wedge had which dragged his third shot back from the pin and his par putt just slid by whilst Skakel stalked a six footer left after a good approach. The putt dropped and the Copt Heath junior was ecstatic -

'This is the one I really wanted. This is the one that has so much history', he said, and whilst Wallace will be going to the British Boys in two weeks time, Skakel will be packing his bags for a year in the US -

'From mid August until the end of May I will spend the year at the Hank Haney Junior Golf Academy - with hopefully a place at a US University to follow.'

Third place went to Walmley's Jamie Slater, Once off six handicap at age 14, Slater had lots of knee problems for a couple of years which ended his progression up the junior ranks. His two rounds of 70, in his final year as a Junior, were testament to skills that are flourishing later in his teenage life.

For the draw for the 2010 Boys Matchplay CLICK HERE

For the Team Results CLICK HERE

For the Gross Results CLICK HERE

For the Nett Scores CLICK HERE

Prize Winners

1st - Patrick Skakel

2nd - Ryan Wallace

3rd - Jamie Slater

4th - Hayden Shirley

5th - Ben Stokes

U16s -

1st - Danyaal Spalding

2nd - Daniel Lane

3rd - Aalex Bagnall

U14s -

1st - Luke Allen

2nd - Stefan Gnyla