BOLTON Golf Club reached the Bolton Golf Association League semi-finals last week after taking two bites of the cherry against opponents Dunscar.

In their first encounter, Bolton beat Dunscar 6½-1½ at home to leap-frog their rivals leaving Dunscar needing to produce at least a 5–3 home win to steal a semi-final place.

But it was Bolton who came out on top when they completed their second match, a tense affair which went to the wire and was eventually finished 4-4.

The delighted Bolton team captain, Mike Stafford, said: “It was always going to be close. We needed to halve the match to put us in the semi-finals and a good showing at Dunscar gave us our reward."

The Dunscar team were very disappointed as they produced some excellent golf, particularly Matt Smith – who set the tone with a clear 5&4 win against Josh Ashton – and Sam Callahan, who beat Tim Cooper two-up in the mid-stages.

Home player James Tuck beat Stafford 2&1 while David Monks helped out for Bolton when he beat Dunscar’s Danny Turner also with a 2&1 score. Bolton’s top player, Rob Taylor, turned his game around after being two down at the turn but completed a 2&1 win against Dunscar’s Tom Stuart.

But the last two crucial games went to Bolton and sealed the match with Bolton’s Dave Cramant beating Nathan Felton 2&1 and Will Warwick overcoming Martin Tuck, also with a 2&1.

Ian Bond, Dunscar’s team captain said: “We started quite well and some early games came our way but it became very tight as the results changed hands several times. Later, it looked bleak from our point of view as we needed to produce five wins in total and we just ran out of games."

The BGA semi-finals will be played at Breightmet on Sunday.

The top seed in League A, Old Links, will play the second seed from League B, Bolton. The top seed in League B Hindley Hall, play the second seed from League A, Deane.

The winners will contest the final on September 18 at a venue to be confirmed.