Newly crowned Atherstone club champion Paul Walker partnered his club teammate Gary Greenway to a very impressive 5 & 3 win with a number of birdies lighting up the card.

Making his debut in county golf Leamington's Joe Owen was paired with Ladbrook Park's Chris Freeman and despite 3 birdies they still found themselves 1 down on the 16th tee and needing to make something happen. In classic foursomes style Joe found 3 greens in regulation with some excellent iron play under pressure, not to be outdone Chris holed 3 putts in succession for a closing sequence of birdie, birdie, birdie for a significant 2 up victory.

Stoneleigh's Shaun Young and Handsworth's Steve Dyson would fight tooth & nail with their Staffs opponents (both of whom were the only staffs players to take 2 points on the day), the lead was swapped several times before the Staffs pair finally won by 1 hole.

In the absence through injury of both captain Pete Clarke and regular partner Nev Gardner the anchor pairing was entrusted to Maxstoke Park's hole in one man Steve Creed and partner ex-Maxstoke and now Hearsall member Stuart Bloxham.

They raced into an early 4 hole lead and cruised from there with a faultless display for a 4 & 3 win that saw lunch being taken with Warwickshire leading 4 v 2.

Sam Foster led the team out for the afternoon singles but couldn't quite find his usual touch and his holiday hangover would see him go down 3 & 1. Dale Middleton is in a rich vein of form at the moment and was far too hot for his Staffs opponent coming home victoriously 4 & 2.

This started a mini charge and in quick succession the Atherstone pair of Gary Greenway & Paul Walker were both leaving the course early after a barrage of birdies, Gary 3 & 2 and Paul 6 & 4.

Joe Owen would find that the step-up from local scratch league golf to county golf can be tough, despite going down 5 & 4 to one of Staffs better players this will be an important learning experience and this is just the start of what promises to be a successful county career for this talented youngster.

James Bromley ground out a typically dogged 1 up win despite complaining of backache (from carrying Sam in the morning !) for most of the afternoon.

Charlie Higgens at 3 under par and 1 up going down the 17th looked to be in pole position when his opponents approach only made front edge some +40ft from the hole, a spectacular effort form his Staffs opponent saw them walk to the 18th tee all square.

For those of you who know the 18th at Kenilworth, the pin to this par 3 was on the back tiered shelf of this 60ft long green. The Staffs player could again only make front edge, Charlie would miss green high right and chip down to puttable range. The pressure was on the Staffs player to 2 putt from 50 odd feet up and across the tier to halve the match, a 2nd putt was not required as he holed again for back-to-back monsters to win unexpectantly 1 up.

Chris Freeman as is his habit again left himself with something to do down the back nine, today however he was up against a very experienced matchplay opponent and his familiar fightback wasn't to happen and he would lose 4 & 3.

The match score was now Warks 8, Staffs 6 with 4 tail-end matches still to come, the tail today was also packed with experienced matchplay players who don't 'give holes away' or get phased if the overall match is getting tight.

Stuart Bloxham was in a hurry as he raced to a 5 & 4 win leaving just half a point needed now for victory, this was achieved by Shaun Young who despite a fightback from the Staffs captain would close his match at the 17th for a 3 & 1 win. Steve Dyson arrived on the 18th tee with a 1 hole lead and the honour, a fabulously controlled punched iron into the wind would see his tee shot to 12ft on the top tier. His Staffs opponent could not quite match that leaving his tee shot on the lower tier and at least twice the distance. Needing to hole his putt to make Steve putt the Staffs player made sure that he was going to reach the hole, this he did and adding to unerring accuracy the ball hit the back of the hole hard and disappeared for birdie.

Steve unfortunately could not follow him in and a half point was added to the scoreboard.

Last man on the golf course was Steve Creed and having got an early lead he was in no mood to relinquish it and would come home with a closing 3 & 1 win.

The overall match score therefore was an 11.5 v 6.5 win, this puts us in a share of top place in the league with both Worcestershire & Derbyshire who have also both started the season with 2 victories.

We next have our first away match of the season on Sunday 2nd August at Cotgrave Place against a notoriously tough to beat Nottinghamshire team