Simply put, Leicestershire averaged three under par per player. In reality two of their six man team did not break par. The four who did simply played top level golf.

Warwickshire were not second. That honor (with no reward though) went to Lincolnshire where again four player were under par. We were three shots behind Lincs and fifteen behind Leics. It was much closer half way through the afternoon before Neil Chaudhuri and the evergreen David Gibson re-established the huge winning margin for the 'Foxes'.

At lunchtime, Warwickshire were in 4th place, 18 shots back from Leics and with Shropshire & Hereford in third. That was because the four low scoring Leics players had a four round total of 273. Our best four scores were 286

The best score from a 'Bear' in the morning was Matt Cryer's 70. Added to that were two 71s from the joint runners-up in the Amateur, Dale Marson and the rather tired (after his British Open exertions) Andy Sullivan. Sam Dodds had a 75, dropping a handful of shots at the end of his round, notably when not being advised of a free drop from a plugged lie he could have taken. Our other 'Sam' (Foster) was on 74 whilst Centenary Amateur Champion Ben Stafford could not link his game together and shot 77.

Warwickshire need low scores and lots of them to have a chance of repeating qualifying for this year's finals. Andy Sullivan shot a 68, the worst score he could have managed, with some superb play continuing from Lytham last week. Under instruction from County Captain Gareth Jenkins, all the team were to go for every birdie opportunity and in doing that at the 6th, Coventry's uphill par five, Andy chose driver to be able to reach the green in two and pulled his shot slightly to find water and take six.

Mat Cryer also went low, a 69 which could have been a couple of shots better were it not for two three putts when going for the first putt and the birdie opportunity.

Dale Marson handed in a second 71 to the scorers. His morning round was one of one chip in and no holed putts. The afternoon was more adventurous, the score the same. What was very good news was that Dale had beaten his playing partner by five shots, that golfer coming from Leics.

With three scores in per County in the afternoon, Warwickshire were now just eight shots back.

Ben Stafford was the next player to sign his card. He had played very well from tee to green (16 out of 18 hit) but could not buy a putt. He was closely followed by Sam Dodds, playing Seve like rescue golf on his 18th hole for a par and a 73. Sam beat Jake Amos from Leics by three so that the gap was now 5 shots, for all of a minute.

In came Chaudhuri with a 68 and a very tired Gibson with a 70 for the 'Foxes' so it matter nothing that Sam Foster had matched par. Gisbon was tired because this was his eighth round in the past week. On a course that he had never played on (every recent winner of the Finham Bowl needs to be thankful that Gibson had never entered), Gibson was committed to his Club and a mixed foursomes to make up that 8 round total -

'Is a lovely golf course', he said afterwards, 'beautiful. I had five birdies in a row going at one stage - just let it slip a bit!'

'I'm not quite sure what to say,' said your County Captain afterwards, 'The Boys tried their hardest but we could not find enough putts.

'-9 is a very good score in the format, a very good score.'

It was very good. Few players ever go bogey free and if all six Warwickshire team member had done so this afternoon, then we would have won. Check the Pro stats and think about buying a lottery ticket for the same sort of odds of that happening.

SCORES

1 - Leics & Rutland - 420 - 432 - 852

2 - Lincs - 433 - 432 - 864

3 - Warwickshire - 438 - 429 - 867

4 - Shrops & Hereford - 435 435 - 470

5 - Worcs - 444 - 442 - 886

8 - Staffs - 452 - 445 - 897

Individual

1. Charles Ford (Leics) - 65+71 - 136

Andy Sullivan - 71 + 68 - 139

Matt Cryer - 70 + 69 - 139

Dale Marson - 71 + 71 - 142

Ben Stafford - 77 + 75 - 152

Sam Dodds - 75 + 73 - 148

Sam Foster - 74 + 73 - 147