MAGNOLIA Park duo Dusan Gavrilovic and Mike Cunningham just missed out on the Lombard Trophy final despite their ten-under par 63 at Frilford Heath.

Gavrilovic, the club pro, and his amateur partner Cunningham were pipped by Merrist Wood pair Alan Lovelace and Chris Ellis, whose 62 was the best round of the 13 regional finals.

They will now compete for the title at Val do Lobo, Portugal in September, while Gavrilovic was left frustrated.

He said: "We were ten under, we didn't make any bogies and played really well.

"But they hit three eagles in their first six holes and we couldn't quite catch them.

"If we had matched their score, we would have gone through on countback.

"We played great, but it wasn't enough."

Gavrilovic holed a 45-foot putt on the final green, which the Magnolia pair expected would win it, but they walked off to see Merrist's 62 on the scoreboard.

Gavrilovic joined Magnolia Park from Studley Wood this year after finishing second in the Gulf Air International Pro-Captain Challenge last November.

Despite losing out on the Portugal final, Gavrilovic discovered he and seven-handicapper Cunningham had plenty in common.

"We found out we both had new babies and talked a lot about that," he said.

"My daughter Ava is four weeks old, while Mike's son Jake is eight months."