COUNTY golf ace Grant Forrest helped Scotland retain the European Amateur Championship title at the weekend.

The Craigielaw ace played a starring role as they beat Sweden 5-2 in the final at Golf de Chantilly in France to retain their title.

Connor Syme struck the decisive blow, as he clinched the winning point with a 4&3 victory over Fredrik Nilehn.

Forrest was rested for the foursomes after feeling unwell in the morning, but he produced a stellar display to beat Adam Blomme 5&4 to give the Scots a 2-1 lead.

Syme, who only dropped half a point during another excellent week, was always in command of his match and the Drumoig man gave Scotland the title for the second year in a row by ending his match on the fifteenth green.

East Lothian star Forrest was delighted to have played his part, and said: "What a week defending the European Team Championships."

Meanwhile, Ian Rae, the national team's coach, was full of praise for the players.

He said: "The team have been superb all week. The spirit in the camp has been excellent and the players have gone out and performed so well in each of the three matches. To retain the title is a great achievement and the players should be really proud of the way they’ve prepared, performed and worked together.

“It was a tough start this morning but Connor (Syme) and Craig (Howie) were awesome in turning their match around after being three down with six to play.

"That win was huge for us and gave the boys momentum going into the singles.

"Grant wasn’t well this morning, but he played superbly in his match which gave the rest of the players the spark this afternoon.

“We have strength in depth throughout this group of players and they are a great bunch of lads who won as a team.

"We've got the World Amateur Team Championship coming later in the season, so it’ll be tough to pick our three-man team for that, which is a great problem to have.”