With early Spring conditions in play, scoring was difficult and there was a premium on hitting greens in regulation as Antony Gascoigne and Bill Nicolson both remarked -

'Bill watched me scratching around a bit this morning - hitting greens makes life much easier', said Gascoigne, whilst Nicolson was first to admit his game was still a bit rusty. Their morning (winning) partnership was split up for the afternoon but both won again.

The only loss in the morning came from Mark Davies and Sam Foster, both of whom were involved in the midweek match which saw their University (Exeter) reach the semi-finals of the British Universities. That semi-final will be at Royal Liverpool, with Exeter the only English University to have made it through. Davies was injured in midweek and could not bring his 'A' game to the day.

'I am very happy', said Gareth, ?The Guys are excellent.'

Over the next two weekends, Gareth will be able to watch how Rory Kirwan, Ben Stafford, Andy Jones and Russell Heritage have wintered when his teams take on Leicestershire and then Somerset.

Next weekend, Andy Sullivan (who won both his matches against Northants), Matt Cryer and Ben Stafford will all play in the 2007 Berkhamstead Trophy. Those scores will Gareth some more information on which to make his preliminary selections for the first Midland League Match away against Derbyshire in early June. The Warwickshire Amateur is a week later than normal (May 29th) leaving little time for finalising teams for both the 1sts and 2nds -

'I will pick my provisional team for the first week in May', said Gareth, 'then I might confirm the final 10 after the Amateur with maybe 2-3 places available for players who impress on that day.'