HEREFORDSHIRE could provide both Hargrove Trophy finalists for the first time ever after Herefordshire GC and Kington A teams battled their way into separate semi-finals of the Shropshire and Herefordshire winter team foursomes competition with dramatic second-leg victories.

There was real drama in the quarter-final at Wormsley where Hereford clinched their place by the narrowest possible margin, beating Ludlow by one hole up after the teams finished level on 3-3.

Trailing by 2-1 and four holes down after the away leg, Jonathan Devereux and John McQuillan got them off to a flying start with a five-up win in the first match against Neil Smith and Gary Mowen.

Neil Greening and Ben Synnock followed this by beating Chris Roberts and Richard Rodgers two-up, with the outcome of the tie depending on the third and final match.

Watched by their team colleagues, the last match came to the final hole with Ludlow's Nigel Griffiths and Rob Fish two up, knowing that they needed to secure a win to force a play-off.

But home pair Robin Eckley and Jason Griffiths kept their nerve and although their opponents splashed out close after finding the green-side bunker in two, they were forced to concede a half to a cast-iron par four.

Kington travelled to Oswestry for the return leg of their quarter-final with a 2- advantage but knowing that the much-fancied home team were capable of inflicting a whitewash on home territory.

Stewart Franks and Matt Davies were one up after 11 holes but lost the last seven holes to lose six down.

Darren Richards and Alan Williams lost two down, but Ed Deasey and Matt Weaver battled hard to squeeze the decisive win two-up and book a semi-final place with a 3-2 winning aggregate.

To set up an all-Herefordshire final Hereford will have to beat Hawkstone Park A and Kington will have to get the better of Church Stretton B.

The semi-finals will again be over two legs with Hereford at home on February 15 and Kington travelling to Church Stretton, with the second legs scheduled for the following weekend.

Hereford B lost interest in the Hargrove Plate after going down 2-1 in the return leg against their visiting Hawkstone Park counterparts.

Having lost 3-0 at Hawkstone, the only winners for Hereford were Neil Bell and Keith Williams who were one up. Steve Griffiths and Steve Eckley lost five down, while Andrew Barr and Richard Welling went down by eight holes.

Leominster's attempt to book a place in the Plate semi-finals was put on hold when their return leg was postponed until next weekend because of a waterlogged course.

They were beaten 2-1 and nine holes down against Ludlow B team in the away leg, but are still hopeful of turning the tie around.