ASHLEY SIDDLE, 18, should have been playing for Lancashire in a boys match against Yorkshire at Otley today. Instead, he will tee-off in the quarter-finals of the English Amateur Championship at Saunton.

"I didn't think I would get this far," said the scratch player from Rossendale who has never even played for the Lancashire first team.

After a thunderstorm had held up play for an hour and 20 minutes, Siddle beat Yorkshire youngster Mark Bell 4 and 3 and then took on England international Zane Scotland for a place in the last eight. "I was nervous," he admitted - and it showed for the first few holes.

He sprayed the ball all over the place but somehow managed to stay level until he found a ditch on the sixth. He hit back at once, winning the seventh and eighth, and never looked back. This morning Siddle meets Reading left-hander Geoff Harris.

On a day when many seeds, including Scotland, fell on stony ground, the England selectors hunched nervously in the clubhouse as the favourites went out one by one. Tom Whitehouse, five under, bowed the knee to Martin Young, from Hampshire, who had six birdies and an eagle in a superb display of golf. Then Jonathan Lupton succumbed to Matt Ford, from Kent, after 24 nail-biting holes. Ford, obviously tired, then went 20 holes with Young before losing.

In the afternoon, England cap Graeme Clark, Oliver Wilson and David Skinns all departed the scene.

Details

ENGLISH MEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP (Saunton; Devon).-4th Round: R Caldwell (Sunningdale) bt A Ward (Whittington Heath) 3&2; A Smith (Enville) bt K Staunton (Woodcote Park) 2&1; G Evans (Ealing) bt R Harrison (Bramley) 6&5; S Robinson (Seaton Carew) bt C Russell (Whittington Heath) 4&3; R Blaxill (Wanstead) bt P Rowe (West Cornwall) at 20th; R Duck (Northants County) bt M Lock (Tall Pines) 1 hole; M Young (Brokenhurst Manor) bt T Whitehouse (Maxstoke Park) 3&2; M Ford (Bearsted) bt J Lupton (Middlesborough) at 24th; A Siddle (Rossendale) bt M Bell (Ganton) 4&3; Z Scotland (Woodcote Park) bt I Parnaby (Durham City) 3&2; G Harris (Reading) bt J Young (Brokenhurst Manor) 5&4; G Clark (Doncaster) bt A Gee (Leatherhead) 1 hole; B Cummings (Basingstoke) bt K Harper (East Devon) at 20th; O Wilson (Coxmoor) bt G Hyde (Bondhay) 7&6; D Skinns (Lincoln) bt W Hawes (Littlehampton) at 19th; S Godfrey (St Enodoc) bt A Patel (Wentworth) 4&3.