It was the turn of Shropshire & Herefordshire to visit Warwickshire for the second of the 2004 Midland League matches. Brian Fish’s Junior team comfortably won away last year and our team had only lost two players through those players becoming too old for this season. Ron Snelling, Chairman of Shrops & Hereford had some younger players in his squad and both teams were missing a couple of ‘stars’ so the result of the Junior County 6s for 2004 pointed to a close match.

In 2001, Warwickshire last qualified for the Country finals with a team boasting Juniors of the calibre of Rob Steele, John Wetton and the like. This year’s team was of equal possible status but with five scores to count from each of two rounds, and the best juniors in the Midlands to contend against, it would be a tough task. Would the ‘Fat Lady sing’ for our County?

If you click on 'Junior Order of Merit' (Left), you will see the first update of the JoM for 2004 and heading the table is Andy Sullivan from Purley Chase after a win at the Schools and Runner-up places in the Boys and Mens Trials. Only 15% of the JoM points for 2004 have been distributed so far, so Andy has a long way to go and lots more golf to play if he is going to claim the JoM title.

Having secured second place in the first round of the qualification from the Midland and East Anglia region of the 2004 Nick Faldo series with a 79 at a wind blown Brancaster, Jack Sant (Ladbrook) went one better with a fantastic 73 over the Dukes at Woburn and now tops the leaderboard at U15s level. In 4th place in the U16s is Steve Mumford (Coventry Hearsall) after his own 72 on the famous course

Ben Stafford was 3 down and had four birdies in his next five holes – and was still 2 down. Sam Foster put 10 birdies and an eagle ‘on the board’ against his two Sunday opponents. There were over 25 ‘red numbers’ from Warwickshire Juniors just on Sunday afternoon as our County equalled the record of Gloucs from the 70’s.

Last year started badly for Andy Sullivan when he missed playing in the McEvoy, and matchplay success for the Boys 1st team apart, it was not a good year – a lack of confidence and a rising handicap. Andy stayed on in education, starting a two year College course last Autumn, unlike many of his fellow Junior Team members who opted for more time for their golf. For Sullivan though, quality rather than quantity and a belief that 2003 was just one of those years saw the Purley Chase star return to winning ways by 3 shots over the field with a 71 at Henley, just one shot off the Amateur Course record.

YOUNG GOLFERS ACROSS WARWICKSHIRE GET THEIR SWINGS BEHIND THE FIGHT AGAINST HEART DISEASE Young golfers across Warwickshire will be getting their swings behind the battle against heart disease as the British Heart Foundation's annual Junior Golf Championship gets underway next month with a preliminary round at Stoneleigh Golf Club on 29 April.