JAMIE Lavin made a winning singles debut to help Bradford to the narrowest of victories over East Riding in the Yorkshire Inter-District League.

Having reached the final of the Bradford Amateur Matchplay last season and finished sixth in last month's 36-hole strokeplay tournament at Bingley St Ives, Lavin was drafted into the fixture at the KP Club in Pocklington.

And the Cleckheaton player justified his call-up by coming back from two down to level his match with Hessle's Lewis Blanchard on the 17th before winning the last two holes.

That helped Bradford overturn a 7-5 foursomes deficit and win the singles 14-10 to give them a 19-17 overall victory.

Lavin was one of the four away winners in the last six singles to ensure Martin Gaffney's side took the spoils, with South Bradford's Andrew Busfield (3&2, including a 40-foot birdie putt on the 15th), Hollins Hall's Warren Kemp (3&1) and Northcliffe's Robert Malloy (3&1) also earning key triumphs.

Earlier, the visitors – who had to make two changes to their original selection, with debutant Matthew Morrison coming in for Rob Hillas and Gaffney replacing the injured Jack Laybourne – had made a slow start in the foursomes and were down in four matches at the turn.

However, the team rallied on the back nine. Despite trailing 7-5, they could easily have led at the interval had East

Riding pairs not holed a couple of tricky putts on the 18th green in matches against Andy Town/Terry Brushwood and Oliver Tasker/Morrison.

The team started strongly in the singles, soon claiming three of the opening four matches with Dane Bairstow, Chris Green – who missed the cut by six shots in the Brabazon Trophy in the previous week – and Brushwood all claiming maximum points with emphatic wins.

It was in the balance but Busfield and Kemp backed up their foursomes win to begin Bradford's telling late surge in the singles.

Skipper Gaffney was delighted with win, especially considering no-one in his team had previously played the course.

It left Bradford third in the table ahead of their next match against Leeds, who have lost all their three games, at Headingley on July 10.

Attention turns to individual competition on Sunday when Northcliffe hosts the 64th Bradford Open.

Defending champion Mark Cook, who won last year's event at Keighley, is in the first group to tee off on his home course at 7.30am along with Town and Kemp.