It was the same sort of story for Dan Baskott. Dan hit 28 greens in his first 36 holes. His scores were 74 and 73, making it through on the cut line and in those first two rounds, Dan made only 3 birdies.

'It was great experience', said Dan, 'but I wasted far too many shots.'

'Things like flying greens and so many misses from 10ft and under - every putt of that length!'

Dan finished with 302 after a closing 77 and then a 78 in the final round.

Sam Dodds was eventually 21st. He opened with a 70 but that round could have gone either way - been higher or lower as Sam started with a double bogey. Not thinking of taking time to 'recover' Sam birdied the 3rd, the 6th, 7th and 8th to then be -2. A bogey on the 9th before parring the second nine and Sam was in the Top 5.

In R2 Sam played the front nine even better, going out in -3. Then his problems started, and continued for the rest of the championship. A bogey on the 12th then a triple on the par three 13th and it all added up to a 73 and T8th going into the final 36.

Sam played the final two rounds with Oscar Sharpe, the very talented young junior from Gloucs. His third round was a 76 after a triple bogey at the 12th then a double on the par five 15th when his 9 iron approach 'airmailed' the green. He finished strongly with a 73 although it wasn't as good as it could have been -

'It wasn't quite happening', said Sam, 'I missed a lot of putts.'

'It wasn't the best but it wasn't disastrous. It was just the back nine. I always liked it before this week but I was +11 for the week on those holes.'

Sam, Ben and Dan will join Andrew Geraghty, Rob Bardsley, Andrew Bate, James Hale and Jamie Carney to form the team trying to win a seventh consecutive 4 Counties this weekend at Enville GC where they take on Gloucs, Worcs and Staffs. Your support would be very welcome and full reports will be here on Sunday evening