The Herts county team were pipped by a point in their second match of the season against Bedfordshire at Dunstable Downs, ending their hopes of retaining the inter-county title they won last year. With strong winds to cope with, local knowledge helped the

The Herts county team were pipped by a point in their second match of the season against Bedfordshire at Dunstable Downs, ending their hopes of retaining the inter-county title they won last year.

With strong winds to cope with, local knowledge helped the home team and they took the foursomes 3-1, with captain James York and Greg Schmidt winning for Herts by 2&1 and, despite a singles fight back, Herts went down by the same margin as against Middlesex, 61/2 to 51/2.

Although the wind in the afternoon approached gale force at times, the standard of golf was excellent and Herts got off to an ideal singles start, with Schmidt getting a half and wins for Tom Speyer 2&1 and Laurence Allen, 3&2.

With the match all square, it was all set for a close finish when Gordon Forster had a fine 6&5 win but the middle order could not match the early successes and Andy Kay, 3&2, was the only other winner as Herts won the singles 41/2-31/2, overall losing by a point.

"We go into the last two matches determined to come away with two wins for the season," said team manager Peter Medcalf.

l After sharing the first round lead with a six under par 64, Brian Davis slipped back to tie for 13th place in the Travellers Championship in Connecticut.

The former Herts county player followed with rounds of 70 69 66 for 269 total, 11 under par, and seven strokes behind winner Stewart Cink. It was Davis' second best finish in 18 events this season after a tie for seventh in the Honda Classic. He is now in 106th place in the US moneylist with $481,596. His English colleague Justin Rose tied for 19th place on 10 under par 270.