Double is on for Wilton

TWO pairings looking to make an immediate return to finals week at the Daily Mail Foursomes saw their hopes crash in the penultimate round of matches before October’s showpiece.

Defeat in the sixth round was particularly hard to take for Hornsea’s Leigh Gawley and Rees Brown, who reached the last 16 last year. They went all the way to the second extra hole at Wilton before being edged out by the home side’s Mark Newcombe and Kevin Nixon.

Wilton are still striving to send both their men’s and women’s pairings to finals week after Pearl Crossen and Janet Payne beat Rudding Park’s Julie Parry and Sandra Taylor 3&2 in the women’s sixth round. Both pairings have just their seventhround matches to negotiate to reach finals week, which this year will be held at Marriott St Pierre at Chepstow.

There will be no return to finals week for anne Main and Lynne Thom, of Burntisland Golf House, who reached the 2015 quarter-finals at the Marriott Forest of arden before losing to eventual finalists Debbie Deakin and Shelley Woodward.

They went out with this year’s finals agonisingly close, losing 4&3 to Leven’s Moira Roberts and Lesley Hunter.

For more stories, results and information on the Daily Mail Foursomes, go to www.mailgolf.co.uk