There were five quick points for Warwickshire when Andy Sullivan was a 3&2 winner to join Cryer, Hayes, Stafford and Nicolson in waiting for the rest of the matches to finish. No point would come from Gareth Jenkins, next year's County Captain, nor Ben Senior. Dale Marson was just up with six to play but the overall match win seemed to be in the hands of Andy Jones who went dormie two up with a great recovery for par on the 16th after a huge flyer from his approach.

Andy missed the 17th on the wrong side but his opponent had played a great approach to the tough par three so they went to 18th with Andy still in charge. Warwickshire were in far better position after the tee shots but Derbyshire hit a superb approach to just past the pin whilst Andy saw his wedge drift into a greenside bunker. He could only recover to 20ft beyond the flag. The par putt never looked like missing and when Dale Marson converted his match, it was a 9-6 win which puts out 1st team back into contention for the Midland League Trophy.

At Chevin, one of the toughest courses in the Midlands for the challenge of its hillside location, conditions were very difficult.

'It was blowing an absolute gale!', said Captain Nick Clifford, 'Two matches in the morning went down the last but they both eventually ended up as Derbyshire wins.'

A Warwickshire recovery seemed a distant prospect as only Mark Davies, playing at No1 for the 2nds, was an early point for our county with a 1up win, plus a 4&3 win for Fred Jewsbury

'Late on, what happened didn't seem possible', said Nick who watched his team then take five of the last seven singles.

Points came from Ian Stranks (by 5&4), then from San Foster (3&2) and Neil Taylor on the last. That left the two 'veterans' of the team, Neville Gardner and Pete Clarke to finish. Gardner won 3&2 but the drama went to the last before Clarke took his match for a 9-9 draw.

'I am really really pleased', said Clifford, 'that was a very good performance from a very young team - it was superb.'

The Boys match vs Staffordshire, away at Izaac Walton, was a bit of a disaster. Firstly Rory Kirwan had to withdraw from the team after qualifying for the final stages of trying to get into the 2006 Open Championship, then on the very first hole of the foursomes, Jack Sant injured himself so that he had to conceed that match and his singles.

We were 4.5 to 0.5 down after the morning's play and despite losing the Sant singles with a concession, our Boys won five of the nine singles and halved another. It all added up to a 9-6 loss however and this result has opened up the Midland Junior League completely, with all Counties now having lost one match. In August, Warwickshire play the team which beat us to qualifying for the County finals this year, Shropshire and Herefordshire. It will be a vital encounter!

A full match scorecard from the 1sts vs Derbys is available in County Men | Teams | 1st team | Scores