Irish girls stage amazing late recovery to force draw with England

Ireland staged a remarkable fightback over the closing holes at Radyr in South Wales yesterday to grab a share of the spoils with defending champions England on the opening day of the Girls Home International series.

They lost the foursomes 2-1 and were down in four of the six singles as the players headed for home in the afternoon — but then came an amazing turnaround.

On a day when play was suspended for a time due to flooded greens, Jessica Carty won three of the last four holes to halve with Elizabeth Mallet and new cap Jessica Ross won three of the final five holes to edge to victory over Brogan Townsend.

Those results to add to the victories by Ariana Coyle Diez and Olivia Mehaffey gave Ireland a 3½-2½ singles success and an overall 4½-4½ match result.

Wales and Scotland also shared the honours 4½-4½ .

Today the Irishtake on Wales knowing that a big win would put them in a strong position to grab the Stroyan cup for the first time.

Ireland v England

Foursomes: J O’Driscoll and J Ross lost to G Hall and G Cowley 2&1; J Carty and C Ryan lost to E Mallet and M MacLaren 5&4; O Mehaffey and A Diez beat O Winning and A Ratcliffe 3&1.

Foursomes result: Ireland 1 England 2.

Singles: O’Driscoll lost to Hall 3&2; Carty halved with Mallett; J Ross beat B Townsend two holes; Diez beat S smart 2&1; Mehaffey beat Cowley 4&3; Ryan lost to MacLaren 2&1.

Singles: Ireland 3½ England 2½.

Other result: Scotland 4½ Wales 4½