DURHAM youngster Jack Ainscough won both of his singles matches to help England Under-16s secure a 16-9 victory over Scotland at Dalmahoy at the weekend.

Ainscough, who is now preparing to face Ireland with the same team in ten days time at Templepatrick, hit a 67 in the individual stroke play to beat Marc Watt’s 70 and he then edged Scottish boys runner-up Ross Callan by one hole.

The only blemish on his few days in Scotland was the foursomes defeat with Ben Jones to Watt and Aidan Smith.

Steve Burnett, the England Golf Men’s Performance Manager, said: “This was a great result for the guys. The team had good strength in depth, they gelled well and played well overall, it was a deserved victory.

“Now we’re looking forward to Ireland and the boys will be desperate to make it a clean sweep. A big thank you also to team manager Nick Over for giving up another weekend of his time to support the team.”

Shotton-born Ainscough, a student in Hartlepool, has enjoyed a great year and this appearance arrived just weeks after he played for England Schoolboys in the defeat to Scotland. He has also had two top ten finishes in the English Under-16s boys’ championship for the McGregor Trophy and Scottish Under-16s as well as finishing in the last 32 of the British boys.

The Hartlepool Golf Club member will remember his first appearance for England Under-16s in style after beating Watt, the recent winner of the Scottish Golf Union Junior Tour Under-16s event.

TWO Wynyard Golf Club golfers have been crowned Ping champions.

Shannon O’Dwyer and Briony Bayles birdied the first two holes and the last two holes on the Karsten Lakes course at Gainsborough to notch up 43 points and win by one.

O’Dwyer also won the putting prize, with an iPing handicap of plus 2.8, while Bayles topped the longest drive competition with a shot of 208 yards.

It was a fantastic day and O’Dwyer, 18, said: “It’s just great to say you’ve played in something like this and done well.”

The duo came through an initial entry of over 16,000 players from almost 850 clubs in the tournament, which is run by England Golf. The top 50 pairs in the country qualified for the final while the next 50 went through to the plate final.

“We played well apart from three holes where we had a bit of a struggle to get one point,” said O’Dwyer.

And Bayles, 15, added: “We were all over the place on the 16th but we managed to scrape a point – and then we thought we needed to birdie the last two.”

Four-handicapper O’Dwyer hit her tee shot on the par three 17th to about four feet before holing out for a birdie; she then rolled in a 20-footer on the 18th to clinch it.

And her Durham team-mate Bayles, a five-handicapper, set the pair on the road to victory with her birdies on the first two holes.

Brancepeth Castle pair Marianne Moore and James Glenn clinched the County Mixed Foursomes title after a tight final.

The Brancepeth duo overcame Beamish Park’s Natasha Martin and Adam Mottershead 3&2 at Hartlepool.

After overcoming hosts Hartlepool in the morning's semi-final on the 19th hole, Brancepeth set up the date with Martin and Mottershead after they defeated Dinsdale Spa 4&3 in the other semi-final.