Lawrie is left to fly Saltire as Wall claims win No 7

Defending champion Anthony Wall recorded his seventh straight victory in the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Playtoreachthesecondround in Germany.

Wall won six matches to claim his second European Tour title at Archerfield Links 12 months ago, 16 years and 204 days after his first in South Africa.

And despite a change of venue to Bad Griesbach Golf Resort for the 64-man knockout event, Wall carried on where he left off with a hard-fought victory over fellow Englishman Sam Walker, a lastminute replacement for the injured Kristoffer Broberg.

Wall, who holed from 20 feet for a winning birdie on the 18th, said: “We played well. He wasn’t so good off the tee and then made birdies at nine and 10 by holing long putts and then it was game on.

“I just managed to keep hold of him and I got my chance at the last and made three so that was fantastic.

“If you’ve done something in that field before once or twice you can draw from that and if you have those nervous patches you can go ‘I’ve done it before, why can’t I do it again?’ and that’s how I try and draw through all my golf.”

Tournament host Paul Lawrie, pictured, needed 20 holes to edge past former Ryder Cup partner Peter Hanson, leaving the Aberdonian as the sole Scot still standing after Richie Ramsay, Scott Jamieson, Marc Warren and David Drysdale all suffered opening-day defeats. Second seed Ramsay was the biggest casualty as he lost 3&2 to England’s Tom Lewis, while there were comfortable wins for Walker Cup team-mates Paul Dunne and Ashley Chesters. “I love the format,” Dunne said after beating Nathan Holman 6&5.

Top seed Matthew Southgate beat France’s Romain Wattel 3&2 despite breaking his driver 15 minutes before teeing off, the 28-year-old borrowing one from compatriot Chris Paisley, whohadearlierbeaten Jamieson at the 22nd hole.