GREEK CALL-UP FOR BATTLER BLAXILL

Richard Blaxill has been rewarded for his fine run in last month's English Amateur Championship at Saunton with an invitation to compete in the 72-hole Greek Amateur at Glyfada on 27-30 September.

The 25-year-old will be accompanied in the three-man team being sent by the EGU, by the Cheshire duo of Barry Barker and Daniel Wardrop.

This will be Blaxill and Barker's first England representative honour whilst Wardrop is an established Boy International. Barker was due to play in the Chiberta Grand Prix in France last month but withdrew through injury.

Blaxill, the Essex,Champion from Wanstead, more familiarly known as Ricky, battled his way to the semi-finals at Saunton before losing out to Durham's Simon Robinson, who was to finish runner-up.

Barker, 28, has been a key player within Cheshire for many years, representing the County at Boys, Youth and Senior level. He was Cheshire Boys Champion in 1989, has won the County matchplay title three times, the Reddish Vale Club Championship five times, and in 2000 won the Cheshire Order of Merit.

A year ago, he reached the semi-finals of the English Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham and eventually lost to the Champion, Paul Casey, but claimed the scalps of several leading players on the way including Internationals Jonathan Lupton and Nick Dougherty.

Wardrop, 18, the Cheshire Boys Champion for the past two years, helped England secure third place in the European Boys Team Championship in Poland a few weeks later having earned his first Boys cap in last year's Home Internationals at Portmarnock.

He was also a member of the England team that won the Boys Home Internationals for the fourth consecutive year at Moortown last month.

The Greek Amateur has been a happy hunting ground for English golfers in recent years. Yorkshire's John Wells won the individual title in 1998 at Glyfada, while a year ago, Ben Welch, Andrew Paisley and Simon Young won the Nations Cup, Welch and Young finished second and third in the individual.