NORTHERN COUNTIES COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

TITLE-HOLDER CARA IS KO'd

BY KERRI IN QUARTER-FINALS

Northern Counties defending champion Cara Thompson was beaten in the afternoon quarter-finals of this year's women's county championship at Royal Dornoch Golf Club today.

Cara, playing over her home links and winner of the title five times, lost by one hole to a former Inverness club champion, Kerri Harper (Inverness), pictured right.
There will be one Royal Dornoch representative in  Sunday morning's semi-finals - Northern Counties LGA secretary and senior international Alison Bartlett, who is the No 1 seed.
She beat Emma Logie (Buckpool) 6 and 5 to set up a semi-final meeting with Harper.
The other semi-final will see Mary Smith (Tain) tackle Annabelle Brown (Nairn Dunbar).
Alison Bartlett, with her secretarial hat on, said:

"Two headlines for us from today:

(A) The performance of the younger county players - two juniors and a student in scratch match play, and two juniors and an early 20s player in handicap (all of whom won and will be in the semi- finals tomorrow, so one of the juniors will be in the final.)

(B) How close all the matches were - 7/8 went to 18th."

 SATURDAY SCORES and RESULTS

SCRATCH QUALFIERS
77 Alison Bartlett (Royal Dornoch)      
81 Carinne Taylor  (Nairn)                     
82 Mary Smith (Tain), Cara Thompson (Royal Dornoch).
83 Kerri Harper (Inverness)
85 Lynne Fraser (Fortrose and Rosemarkie), Annabelle Brown (Nairn Dunbar) 
86 Emma Logie (Buckpool)

HANDICAP QUALIFIERS 
Abbie Cruden (Nairn Dunbar)       96 (17) 79
Marjorie Dixon (Brora)                  99 (19) 80
Susan MacVicar  (Nairn)                91 (10) 81
Madison Strachan (Cullen)             93 (12) 81
Rosemary Muschamp (Ryl Dornoch) 106 (24) 82
Angela Grant (Brora)                          100 (18) 82
Niketa Cruickshank (Buckpool)            92 (10) 82
Belinda Shepherd  (Royal Dornoch)    104 (22) 82

MATCH-PLAY RESULTS
SCRATCH: Quarter-finals
Bartlett bt Logie 6 and 5.
Harper bt Thompson 1 hole.
Smith bt Fraser 1 hole.
Brown bt Taylor 2 holes.

SUNDAY MORNING SEMI-FINALS

Bartlett v Harper

Smith v Brown

HANDICAP: Quarter-finals

Cruden (17) bt Shepherd (22) 2 holes
Strachan (18) bt Muschamps (24) 2 holes.
Grant (18) bt MacVicar (10) 1 hole.
Cruickshank (10) bt Dixon (19) 1 hole 

SUNDAY MORNING SEMI-FINALS

Cruden (17) v Strachan (18)

Grant (18) v Cruickshank (10)