Shropshire & Herefordshire’s juniors produced a stunning show to overcome Cheshire at the Four Counties tournament – despite giving away a massive 27 shots on handicap.

The victory couldn’t prevent S & H finishing bottom in the the round-robin tournament, but gave them a deserved victory after an encouraging showing at Caldy on the Wirral.

S & H won three of the first four in the match against Cheshire – which comprised eight scratch singles – captain Sam Roberts (Llanymynech), Stefan Rowe (Shrewsbury) and Matthew Birch (Market Drayton) all victorious.

Cheshire fought back to level at 3-3 but Lilleshall Hall youngster Ed Tranter held his nerve to defeat James Guterman 2&1 to record an overall victory.

“It was a fantastic performance because S & H’s combined handicap was 23 and Cheshire’s was +4,” said union secretary Bob Davies.

“To record a victory in a scratch match when there was such a big differential in handicap was a great achievement.

“We had some very young players in the team so there was one eye on next year and all the players performed very well.”

S & H lost both of their opening day games 5-2 to Lancashire, when there were wins for Rowe and Oswestry’s Rob Griffiths, and Nottinghamshire as Birch won and Oswestry’s Will Jones and Roberts both halved.

Their victory over Cheshire changed the whole dynamics of the tournament and allowed Nottinghamshire to come through and take overall glory.

Jones mixed in illustrious company as the lead player for S & H. The Spring Cup winner was beaten 7&6 by Lancashire’s Tommy Fleetwood, who is on the GB & I Walker Cup squad.

But he recovered well to push two England Boys internationals all the way, halving with Nottinghamshire’s Ed Peters before losing on the home green to Cheshire’s Tom Boys.

By JAMES GARRISON