HEREFORDSHIRE county team begin their programme of matches this Sunday when they take on the Shropshire and Herefordshire Juniors at Wormsley.

The following Sunday they play their annual game against the Herefordshire Prof-essionals at Burghill Valley, and later in the season play Worcester-shire Colts and Brecon and Radnorshire.

Herefordshire GC's John McQuillan will continue as the county team captain for a fourth successive year, with Kington's Ed Deasey joining him as vice-captain.

At the annual meeting of the Herefordshire Clubs Committee, Glyn Wict-ome (Kington) and Terry Horobin (Herefordshire GC) were re-elected as chairman and secretary-treasurer respectively.

n Several Herefordshire players took their first tentative steps towards a possible five-day trip for the finals of the Lombard Trophy at San Lorenzo, Portugal, when they won their respective club qualifying events.

They will join their club professionals at either Celtic Manor or Enville for the regional finals, with the winners of the 16 events going on to the Algarve grand final in September.

Leading the way with a sparkling nett 57 was Kington's Alf Roberts who will link up with club professional Andy Gealey for the regional final at Celtic Manor.

Neville Turner (Sapey) took his club qualifier with 41 points to join professional Chris Knowles; Harry Magee (Hereford Municipal) fired a nett 64 to book a place with professional Garry Morgan; and John Tecke (Ross-on-Wye) posted a nett 70 to team up with professional Nick Catchpole, all playing at Celtic Manor.

Colin Farr (Hereford-shire GC) posted a nett 60 to earn a place with his long serving professional David Hemming in the regional final at Enville.

Hemming, aged 70, will be retiring this year after over 30 years at the club.

n Burghill Valley assistant professional Keith Preece has moved into the lead in the Professional Order of Merit after the latest Shropshire and Hereford-shire Alliance meeting at Ludlow.

His 39 stableford points for second place took him to the head of the merit table with two events still to play.

The team of Preece, Guy Evans, Mark Wright and Andy Lambert finished third but lead the team table by 10 points.

n Junior member Ben Hughes continued his excellent recent form when he posted a nett 60 to win the Hudson Cup, the first board trophy of the year at Kington.

Results, overall winner: Ben Hughes 77-17-60; division 1: 1 Lee Wilson 74-9-65, 2 Dave Morris 70-4-66, 3 Stewart Franks 69-2-67; division 2: 1 Wyndham Evans 79-15-64, 2 John Morris 79-13-65, 3 David Weaver 77-12-65; division 3: 1 Alf Roberts 81-24-57, 2 Rob Kellard 82-18-64, 3 Stan Arnold 86-20-66; best gross Darren Richards 68.

April medal, overall winner: Lee Wilson 73-10-63; division 1: 1 Alan Williams 70-4-66, 2 Dan Jarman 71-1-70; division 2: 1 Mike Harley 85-14-71, 2 Howard Perry 83-10-73; division 3: 1 Mike Kidd 87-21-66, 2 Barry White 88-20-68.

Kington beat Hereford-shire GC 4-1 in their latest Shropshire and Herefordshire Handicap League match.

n Hereford Municipal, Lombard qualifier: 1 Harry Magee 80-16-64, 2 John Davis 75-11-64, 3 Paul Sutherland 79-11-68.

Junior competition: 1 Jack Larkin 96-28-68, 2 Mark Keddie 93-24-69, 3 Kieron Helps 82-12-70.

n Richard Beaumont, Jason Colwick, David Everall and Les Harber were clear winners of Leominster's Yellow Ball competition.

They posted a massive 167 stableford points to finish 10 clear of Peter Morris, Mark Lane, Julian Morris and Richard Maloney, with Dave Pugh, Brian Leech, Ted Amos and Roger Barrington a further seven points adrift in third place.

Senior section, Weston Cider Cup: 1 Ed Jones and Wally Davies 35 stableford points, 2 John Ashcroft and John Price 35.

Seniors' April medal, division 1: 1 Wally Davies nett 68, 2 Ian Hamilton 68; division 2: 1 Bill Nicholls 67, 2 Geoff Firkins 69.

Leominster drew 3-3 with visitors Ludlow in a Shropshire and Hereford-shire Handicap League match.

Supercraft Structures won the annual Corpor-ate Golf Challenge with 86 stableford points, one clear of runners-up J Price and Sons, with Cadmore two shots further adrift in third place.

Gary Rushgrove is taking up a post as an assistant professional in Kent. Club professional Andy Ferriday is looking for someone to help him in the shop on five mornings a week and can be contacted on 01568 611402.

n Winston Jones won the first Ross-on-Wye medal of the season, firing a nett 68 to hold off the challenge of three other players by a single shot.

Results, division 1: 1 John Tecke 84-14-70, 2 Mel Fox 84-13-71, 3 John Church-Jones 85-13-72, 4 Alex Catchpole 77-4-73; division 2: 1 Winston Jones 96-28-68, 2 Malcolm Humble 93-24-69, 3 Bill Johnston 88-19-69, 4 Andy Grey 85-16-69.

Seniors captain Tom Moore made an excellent start to his year when he led his team to a resounding 6-2 victory at Lilleybrook.

n Ken Shurmer, Derek Hancock, Mike Ingram and Harvey Hancock combined well to win the team stableford event at Belmont.

With the best three scores to count, they clocked up an impressive 115 stableford points, 11 more than runners-up Dave Tedstone, Sean Pockett, Dave Ankers and Kevin Pockett.

Seniors' Lancaster Plate: 1 Phil Skyrme, =2 Bob Ing, Gordon Bumfrey and Angus Maclean.

Team stableford: 1 Alan May, Brian Turner and Bernie Parsons 76 pts, 2 Ken Shurmer, Dennis Pritchard and Dave Atkinson 73.

The Scratch team drew 2-2 at Ludlow with Will Lloyd and Tristan Dodd winning for Belmont, and the mixed team made a winning start in their Wye-Dean League programme when they beat Forest Hills 6-2.