HAMPSHIRE made a powerful start to a new-look county golf week with a crushing 7-3 victory over Oxfordshire in the first of their sub-divisional matches at Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire, yesterday.

Sue Gardiner's Hampshire team face four matches this week as they seek to extend a long winning sequence in what is the zonal qualifier for the English County Championships.

And they got the morale-boosting victory they were looking for in their opening match. They lost only one match in the singles section while their first and second pairings achieved emphatic wins in the four-somes.

Chris Quinn (South Winchester) and Kerry Smith (Waterlooville) have fought many a county campaign for Hampshire and their collective experi-ence proved far too much for their Oxfordshire rivals with the match fin-ishing on the 12th green.

A resounding 7 and 6 success was fol-lowed by an equally conclusive win by county champion Kirsty Taylor (Sandford Springs) and her regular playing partner Emma Weeks (Hockley) who coasted home 6 and 5.

Hampshire's only defeat in the four-somes came when Helen Wheeler (Hockley) and county newcomer Fiona Khan (South Winchester) went down 3 and 2.

It left Hampshire with still some work to do in the afternoon singles but they set about their task in work-manlike fashion, Taylor storming home 5 and 4 while Smith, showing the form that took her to last month's final of the English Championship, destroying her opponent 6 and 5.

Emma Weeks tripped up by one hole but Jenny Deeley, the only Channel Islander in the county team, justified her place with a 2 and 1 victory.

By then the match had been well won and Wheeler's one hole success was a further bonus. Chris Stirling, the non-playing England captain from the Meon Valley club, had to be content with a half. Today Hampshire face Berkshire with a warning from captain Gardiner that they will present a far tougher proposition than Oxfordshire.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.