WILTSHIRE U18s team manager Ian Welding believes his team will be able to claim their second English County Boys Championship in as many years when they tee off next week.

The competition consists of four counties, who had to win their regional competition to reach the final.

Wiltshire will be joined by Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire and Yorkshire as they prepare to battle it out at Bradford on Avon’s Cumberwell Park.

This is the first time in 20 years that the prestigious competition will be hosted in Wiltshire and the hosts are bidding to be just the third team to successfully defend their title.

U18s manager Ian Welding is confident that Wiltshire will be able to live up to the expectation that comes with being champions.

“This is the third year in a row that we have qualified for the finals and we actually won it last year, so we are going in as defending champions,” he said.

“We went in with no expectations at all – just to do our best – but this year, with it being in Wiltshire, the expectation is a bit greater.

“We’ve got pretty much the same team as last year. They handled it really well last year so I’m hoping they will be able to step up and do the same again.”

The team will play 36 holes a day across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. In the morning, they will compete in teams of four against another county.

They will then have six singles against another county in a match play format.

The winners of each day will face the losers of the other half of the draw and then on Thursday, they the remaining team.

Welding added: “I’m certainly confident. The preparations have been good and that the lads can handle the pressure.

“Yorkshire are very very strong I would say they are the favourites.”