WILTSHIRE county champion Ben Stow was represent England in the men’s amateur Home Internationals this year in Sligo this week.

Stow, who lives in East Knoyle, south of Warminster, was winning his first full national cap as part of an 11-man squad at County Sligo Golf Club.

The 19-year-old, a member of the Rushmore club on the Wiltshire/Dorset border, is the current Wiltshire men’s and colts champion, winning those titles in May.

His superb season has also seen him catapulted to sixth in the English Golf Union’s men’s order of merit.

Stow also won the Welsh Open Youths and the South West Championship, finishing runner-up in the Welsh Open Strokeplay event and equal fifth in the Brabazon Trophy.

He was joined in the England team by Wiltshire colleague Ben Loughrey, of the Wrag Barn club near Highworth.

England were defending the Raymond Trophy after regaining it in 2009 and retaining it last year.

The Home Internationals are the last chance for Great Britain & Ireland captain Nigel Walker to look at candidates for his team to take on the USA in the Walker Cup – the amateur version of the Ryder Cup – at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club next month.

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