Randle and Burton lost their 15th then had a horrendous bounce under a bush on the 16th to loose that. Their opposition proceeded to birdie the final two holes to halve the match and give Staffs a moral advantage from the morning play - the result was 2.5 points apiece.

Where our 1sts have won matches has often been with a strong performance from the top five in the singles. This time, only Rob Steele came away with a win as Matt Cryer went down to Rob Maxfield - who incidentally runs the Belfry Golf but plays for the today s away team - Dave Fletcher lost 3&2 and Carl Kirby could not repeat the excellence of his last match leaving us requiring wins from all the remaining six matches for that vital victory.

Once again, Bill Nicolson staged a great fightback but lost on the last. Chris Evans duly played some great golf including a bottle 10ft putt on 15 to keep a two hole lead and there was a welcome return to winning ways from Gareth Jenkins.

We added another pint with a tough win from Ryan Burton up the last, but missed out on a half a point when David Harris three putted on the treacherous final green. This wasn t enough.

Paul Randle lost 2&1 to leave the singles 6-4 to Staffs and the match 8.5 to 6.5 - and with a Shropshire win today, Warwickshire will have lost all chance of retaining their Midland League title.

The top 5 haven t performed this time , said Ian Watkins after the match, Just one point (from five) but there was a strong performance from the last five with 3 points which I am very pleased about.

And for Gareth (Jenkins) - he s not been getting his best results in the singles so today was great. I am pleased for that alone

Next match - Home at Coventry Hearsall against Notts - first Sunday in September