THE LAST two winners of the English Counties Men’s Senior Finals will go head-to-head for the title after two days of excellent golf on the Chipping Sodbury course.

Lancashire, who were champions in 2014, will face the reigning title holders BB&O (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) over the Ryder Cup-style test of the Chipping Sodbury Golf Club fairways on Thursday.

The two sides, who are in a four-way contest with Worcestershire and Devon, ran away with the first day’s play.

Lancashire marked their return to the Finals with a hefty 8.5-0.5 win over Worcestershire on the first day while BB&O endured a nervy spell before clinching their 6-3 win over Devon.

The nerve of the defending champions was thoroughly tested in the opening match. BB&O were down in all three foursomes this morning before managing to turn two around with two-up wins from the pairings of David Niven and Andrew Stracey and Malcolm Reid and George Best-Wilson.

Niven, an England senior international, and Best-Wilson both swept away to big wins in the singles, scoring 6-5 and 7-6 respectively.

But then the tension kicked in: “We’re fighting for our lives,” said Niven after a look at the scoreboard, which showed BB&O trailing in three games and all square in one.

Former international Andrew Stracey ended the agony when he grabbed a one-hole lead on the 16th and held onto it over the remaining two holes, despite plenty of excitement along the way.

Lancashire won in style on Tuesday’s opening day with a whopping win.

And yesterday, they were heading towards another massive victory over Devon, this time.

They took two out of three of the foursomes, and, as the Gazette went to press, they were up in three out of five singles.

Meanwhile, BB&O were not giving up their title without a fight and won all three of the foursomes matches yesterday morning.

Then Andrew Stracey hammered Mark Carpenter in one of the singles matches by a whopping 8&7 while BB&O were up in three out of five of the others, with the other two all square.

And it promises to be an exciting final day today with the two top teams expected to be fighting it out in a real showdown for the big prize.