But it is no slight on Armitage, the Yorkshire county player from Howley Hall who has started the season with a bang by winning the opening Eagle Golf-Yorkshire Order of Merit event, the Auchterlonie Spoon at Selby.

The Union are fielding a side made up largely of junior squad players for the friendly match.

The match is being looked on as a form guide for up-coming Yorkshire Inter-Union Junior League matches as Leeds are keen to mount a serious challenge to Harrogate, the champions for the past two years.

The match is the first event for the new leadership of the Leeds squad, county player David Appleyard having taken over as captain from the new Yorkshire captain Andy King and Andy Wiltshire having succeeded Alastair McIlroy as team secretary.

Wiltshire said: "We have left out our leading players from the 10-man team as we have some outstanding young players we want to look at and this is a good chance to see them up against experienced opposition."

The Leeds side is: Wiltshire (Pontefract), Appleyard (South Leeds), S Cain (Scarcroft), B Hardcastle (Wike Ridge), C Hutchinson (Cookridge Hall), G Johnson (Howley Hall), L Morrisroe (Howley Hall), C Mufaya (Pontefract), L Cooper (Headingley), AN Other.

Harrogate got off on the right foot in their defence of the title with a 22-14 win over Halifax-Huddersfield at Ripon City.

Armitage produced sparkling early- season form in winning the Auchterlonie Spoon.

He made light of the tough wintry conditions with a first round 66 and added a 73 to win by two from Manchester's Neil Self and Sam Haywood, from Rotherham.

Leading scores: 139 - M Armitage (Howley Hall) 66 73. 141 - N Self (Stand) 70 71; S Haywood (Rotherham) 70 71. 144 - W Shucksmith (Alwoodley) 71 71. 144 - D McCarthy (Pannal) 73 71; R Roper (Wike Ridge) 73 71; L Maguire (Howley Hall) 72 72. 145 - M Evans (Rotherham) 75 70; N McCarthy (Moortown) 74 71; S Coumbe (Pontefract) 72 73.

l Baildon's Simon Bell defends the Hawksworth Trophy, the next Order of Merit event at Bradford on Saturday when Rotherham's Matt Evans is the low man in a big field that sports 24 off scratch and better with a further 24 off one and two handicaps.

Meanwhile, Bell's fellow county squad member Adam Best defends the Cleveland Salver on his home course on Sunday.

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MARK JAMES had his best finish of the year on the Champions Tour, tieing 15th in the Outback Steakhouse Pro-am at Tampa Bay, Florida, on Sunday where he finished on two under par 211 with rounds of 67 74 70.