Northern Counties in the driving

seat after two days at Dornoch

Northern Counties are in the driving seat with two wins out of two as the North Division women’s inter-county team championship enters its third and final day at Royal Dornoch Golf Club on Monday.
Mathematically, they can still be caught if they were to lose their last match to Aberdeenshire while Angus had a big win over Perth & Kinross, but the odds against such a double whammy are long, to say the least.
Northern Counties opened their campaign by beating title-holders Perth & Kinross 5 ½-3 ½ on Saturday and followed that up with an impressive 7-2 win today over Angus who had edged a 5-4 win over Aberdeen on the first day.
Kelsey MacDonald (Nairn Dunbar) who had beaten P&K's Carly Booth in the lead-off singles on Saturday, continued in good form with a 2 and 1 win over Angus youngster Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie Ladies) who has won both her county's women's and girls' titles this year.
Angus introduced Ailsa's mother Mary Summers into the singles line-up - and she won the No 5 tie. In fact Angus both both the last two singles, thanks to Mary and Ann Ramsay.
But the damage had been done higher up the batting order with Northern Counties winning the top four ties through Kelsey MacDonald, Cara Gruber, Sammy Vass and Pam Mackay.
Perth & Kinross drew 4 1/2-4 ½ with Aberdeenshire in today's other match. The top singles between Scotland team-mates Carly Booth (Comrie) and Laura Murray (Alford) ended in a surprisingly easy win for Carly by 7 and 5.
The winners of the Northern Division title go forward to the four-cornered contest for the Scottish women’s county team championship at Baberton Golf Club, Edinburgh from September 18 to 20.

Today's results:

PERTH & KINROSS 4 ½, ABERDEENSHIRE 4 ½
Foursomes – Emily Ogilvie & Carly Booth bt Laura Murray & Carol Wilson 5 and 4; Annabel Niven & Alex Bushby bt Sammy Leslie & Sheena Wood 2 and 1; Eve Muirhead & Laura Walker lost to Mhairi Johnstone & Laura McLardy 5 and 4 (2-1).
Singles – Booth bt Murray 7 and 5, Ogilvie bt Wood 4 and 2, Bushby halved with Wilson, Niven lost to McLardy 7 and 5, Fiona Ramsay lost to Leslie 4 and 2, Walker lost to Donna Pocock 4 and 3 (2 ½-3 ½)

NORTHERN COUNTIES 7, ANGUS 2
Foursomes – Sammy Vass & Kelsey MacDonald bt Ailsa Summers & Rebecca Wilson 3 and 2; Cara Gruber & Pam Mackay bt Katy McNicoll & Ann Ramsay 3 and 2; Alison Bartlett & Mary Smith bt Fiona Gilbert & Fiona Blair 3 and 2 (3-0).
Singles – MacDonald bt Ailsa Summers 2 and 1; Gruber bt Wilson 4 and 3; Vass bt McNicoll 3 and 1; McKay bt Shonagh Raitt 3 and 1, Bartlett lost to Mary Summers 5 and 4; Smith lost to Ramsay 2 and 1 (4-2).