Meadow the last standing as Irish stars fall by wayside

THE unpredictability of match-play was apparent again yesterday as three of the highly-fancied home competitors all lost in the first match-play round of the British Ladies Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

The talented teenage Maguire twins from Slieve Russell along with Royal County Down’s Danielle McVeigh all went out.

Leona Maguire went down on the last green to French golfer Perrine Delacour while Lisa also suffered last hole heartache against fellow Irish player Deirdre Smith.

McVeigh surrendered a two-hole halfway advantage to Woburn’s Lauren Taylor and went down by 2&1.

There were some mixed emotions at the home club as Stephanie Meadow, set to make her senior Great Britain and Ireland debut later in the month, reached round three — the stage of the last 16 — against the odds but Charlene Reid crashed to a 5&3 reverse at the hands of Canada’s Anne-Catherine Tanguay.

Meadow is really in inspired form and she opened the match-play phase with a two-hole success against Laure Castelain from France and then produced a major upset when she squeezed home against top seed Spaniard Camilla Hedberg.

Hedberg had earlier disposed of Ballybunnion’s Emma O’Driscoll by 4&3 but found Meadow tough to crack and after a tight battle the Irish star, who has been doing exceptionally well on the US College circuit, got home on the final green.

Bangor’s Victoria Bradshaw produced an excellent morning performance to see off Holly Clyburn by 3&2 but then had to give best to German’s Thea Hoffmeister 2&1.