Title-holders Scotland improve

but still trail leaders England

Defending champions Scotland will start Saturday's fourth and final round of the European Nations Cup men's amateur team tournament in joint 10th place in a field of 18 countries at Real Sotogrande Golf Club on Spain's Costa del Sol.
The three other home teams are all ahead of the Scots whose best three from four individual scores daily has given them a 54-hole tally of 656.
England (618) lead by 11 shots from Spain with France (630) in third place.
Ireland (639) are lying fourth and Wales (646) are in sixth position.
The Scots' third-round team score of 212 was their best yet after having to count scores as high as 78 and 76 in the first and second rounds.
On the third day, they were able to discount a 77 by Gordon Yates (Hilton Park) with counting scores of a pair of 70s by Keir McNicoll (Carnoustie) and Steven McEwan (Caprington), pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency, and a 72 by Scott Borrowman (Dollar).
McNicoll and McEwan have had counting scores in each of the three rounds.
Front-running England had third-round scores of 65 from Sam Hutsby, 69 by Charlie Ford and 73 by Dale Whitnell.

THIRD-ROUND TEAM TOTALS
(-) indicates non-counting score.
618 ENGLAND (S Hutsby 69 69 65, L Goddard 68 68 -, D Whitnell - 68 73, C Ford 69 - 69).
629 SPAIN (J F Sarasti Bernaras 69 71 71, M Cobo Arrayas - 73 71, P Oriol Sanchez-Blanco 73 - 69, Carlos Pigem 67 65 -).
630 FRANCE (A Kaleka 68 69 -, K Turlan - - 73, J Loperz-Lazaro 69 69 69, O Serres 70 73 70).
639 IRELAND (S Lowry 68 71 72, N Kearney 68 72 70, C Curley 74 71 73, A Dunbar - - -).
642 DENMARK (K Nielsen - 70 -, S Cappelin 69 70 70, L Justra Bjerregaard 74 - 73, J Roth 70 73 73).
646 WALES (B Westgate - 75 68, N Edwards 75 72 -, B Enoch 72 - 71, J Fraser 73 71 69).
650 ITALY (N Bertasio 75 69 71, M Manassero 71 70 67, C Terragni - - 71, L Motta 81 75 -).
655 SWEDEN (P Widegren 75 73 73, P Gad 72 - 73, M Nordqvist - 71 -, A Larsson 73 71 74), BELGIUM (C Mivis 75 75 -, T Pieters - 75 71, P-A Rolland 70 - 72, D Van Doren 75 73 69).
656 SCOTLAND (K McNicoll 73 73 70, S McEwan 69 75 70, S Borrowman - 76 72, G Yates 78 - -), NETHERLANDS (T Bakker 71 73 -, M Kraalj - 74 75, M Vermnei 76 - 68, R Van West 70 77 72).
657 AUSTRIA
658 NORWAY
663 FINLAND
670 PORTUGAL
673 CZECH REP
677 GERMANY
690 SLOVENIA
LEADING INDIVIDUALS
199 Carlos Pigem (Spa) 67 65 67.
203 Sam Hutsby (Eng) 69 69 65.
207 Johann Lupez-Lazaro (Fra) 69 69 69.

+News of the third-round totals in the women's European Nations Cup can be found on our sister website, www.kirkwoodgolf.co.uk