James Hale provided a 76, the other James (Smith) a 74 then there were three top rounds, firstly a 71 from Jamie Carney playing in possibly his first of four (or maybe five) County 6s qualifiers, a 69 (-1) from Rob Bardsley and then the best round of the morning, a 66 from Boys Captain Sam Dodds - four under par.

Four Counties were no more than 10 shots back from our total after the morning round, and only 19 shots separated first from last place. As the afternoon progressed, and our players could not match par (which would have been needed), so a few other counties players produced some superb golf and their team mates fought out as closely contested a qualifier as has been seen in years.

Adam Myers (Northants) shot a 63 (-7) to put his County in contention but three 73s from his team mates were one shot too many a score at the end.

Shrops & Hereford had to count a 76 for most of the afternoon before a 69 and a 71 saw them draw ahead of us but its was one of the teams whose handicaps would not have made them amongst the favorites who produced the golf of the day.

Warwickshire beat Worcestershire 8-7 in the Midland league a few weeks ago but this was stroke-play and Worcs were in devastating form this day. Two 71s were followed by a 68, then a 72 and for the fifth counting score, a 69.

That gave Worcs 717 with one score to come, with Shrops & Hereford on 721. Then in came Richard Guerney for Shrops with a 69, so the 76 was discarded and their new total was 714. Were Worcs finished - no because their last player Rudi Hercik produced a 69 so their 72 was gone and they to had a final total of 714. Count-back was then used and because of their lower 6th player score, it will be Worcs who go to the English finals.

Warwickshire finished on 722, tied 4th. Sam Dodds added a 72 to his 66, Jamie Carney made one birdie (on the day in his 72, James Hale improved three shots with a 73, Rob Bardsley had a triple bogey in his 74 and James Smith shot 75.

With the top play of Michael McCormack and Adam Ferarro in Tuesday's Amateur, and the performance today of Rob Bardsley and Jamie Carney, the future still looks good and hopefully 2008 will see Warwickshire return to the highest echelons of English County Golf. In the meantime, good luck to Worcstershire!