Michael Stewart is man in form for St Andrews Trophy

Michael Stewart will be aiming to carry his impressive recent record in team competition into this weekend's St Andrews Trophy as GB&I's amateurs aim for a sixth straight victory over the Continent of Europe in the biennial joust.

Stewart, the new Scottish champion, picked up a five-and-a-half points from a possible six during the Home Internationals earlier this month and the Troon youngster will be hoping to replicate that form on Italian soil over the next two days when the two sides cross swords at Castelconturbia near Milan.

Stewart is joined in Nigel Edwards' nine-man team by fellow Scots, Ross Kellett and James Byrne, for an event that GB&I have dominated since its inception in 1956. They have won 24 of the previous 27 meetings but, while Europe may have only triumphed three times, two of those wins were achieved in Italy with their most recent success coming at Villa d'Este on the banks of Lake Como in 1998.

Grant Forrest, the Scottish Boys' champion, and Scott Gibson of Southerness will also be on GB&I duty this weekend in the under-18s contest for the Jacques Leglise Trophy.

Meanwhile, Scottish women's champion Kelsey Macdonald, playing in the event for the fourth year in a row, leads by two strokes at the halfway stage of the girls' section of the Belgian junior international tournament at Royal Golf Club of Belgium near Brussels.

The 19-year-old Stirling University student and Nairn Dunbar GC member, in her last year of eligibility, kept her head down to return a battling one-over-par 73 in windy conditions and a course soaked by overnight rain for the second round. MacDonald has a two-shot lead from Anais Maggetti (Switzerland) and Fanny Cnops (Belgium).