BURGHILL Valley and The Herefordshire A teams, the county's remaining representatives in the Hargrove Trophy, both have some work to do if they are to meet in a semi-final of the premier Shropshire and Herefordshire winter foursomes knockout.

Both had home advantage in the first leg of their quarter-final matches against Wrekin A and Llanymynech B respectively, with Burghill Valley winning 2-1 and The Herefordshire halving 1-1.

At Burghill, Ben Carter and Kris Jones, and Andy Lambert and Jim Payne won their matches three up, but Dan Jarman and Matt Harrison went down by four holes to leave the tie delicately poised.

At Wormsley, Jonathan Devereux and John McQuillan gave the home team a flying start with a crushing 10-up win. But Robin Eckley and Kevin Gibbons lost one down when their opponents bagged a birdie at the last, while the final pair of Neil Greening and Elliot Shaw salvaged a half when they birdied the last.

The return legs will be played on January 30.

In the Hargrove Plate competition for first-round losers, pride of place went to the Kington B team. They gave themselves every chance of progressing to the semi-finals with a splendid 3-0 home win over Patshull Park A in the home leg of their quarter-final.

Roger Richards and Ryan Cadwallader gave the team a sound start by winning five up, and Nigel Scott and Doug Taylor followed this with a fine seven-up victory.

The anchor pair of Brian Morgan and Lee Wilson battled hard to gain a two-up win and put their team in a strong position for the return leg. They are 14 holes to the good but must be looking for at least a half in one of the matches at Patshull to guarantee a semi-final place.

Burghill Valley B team have it all to do after going down 2-1 at home to Worfield A.

Phil Harrison and Rob Haines gave them a good start, winning four up, but Ed Morley and James Davies, and Carl Rose and Sam Baker found the opposition too hot to handle and both pairs lost five down.

However, foursomes is an awkward proposition and they could turn this around in the return leg at Worfield.

Although Leominster went down 3-0 at Telford in the first leg of their tie, they are only eight holes down and by no means out of the competition.

At one stage it was looking good for the visitors with all the matches square through 14 holes. But the home team finished strongly with Simon Morgan and Julian Morris eventually losing two down, Gary Price and Jeremy Lawrence, and Mike Craddock and Nigel Morris, both three down.

They must win all three matches at Leominster but, with home advantage, they can still turn it around.