Foursomes flop sinks Ireland

A DISASTROUS result in the morning foursomes against Scotland cost Ireland dearly on the final day of the Home International Championship at Rosses Point yesterday.

The home side took a mere half point from the five foursomes and even they put up a brave rearguard action in the afternoon singles, still went down by 8 ½ to 6 ½. That left Ireland and England, who had accounted for Wales earlier in the day by 9 ½ points to 5 ½, level with two wins each and so the overall outcome was decided on individual points accumulated over the three days.

And England, 27, retained the Raymond Trophy ahead of Ireland, 25 ½, followed by Scotland, 22, and Wales 15 ½, with the “wooden spoon”.

It was a bitterly disappointing outcome to the tournament for Ireland captain, Kevin Flanagan, a local doctor, for they had gone into the final day in pole position having accounted for England and Scotland in the preceding two days. However, nothing went right in the foursomes which were contested in heavy rain and strong winds with Ireland’s half point coming from Niall Gorey and Gary McDermott.

A 4 ½ to ½ deficit left the Irish needing 7 ½ points from the 10 afternoon singles to complete the Grand Slam and from an early stage it was clear that it was never going to happen. Paul Cutler, Alan Dunbar and Eddie McCormack were beaten in each of the first three singles — the start of which had to be delayed by the atrocious weather — and after that it was a case of trying to accumulate sufficient individual points to nudge ahead of the English.

It was on the cards for a time as Kevin Phelan halved his match followed by a succession of wins for Aaron Kearney, Gary McDermott, Dermot McElroy, Richard O’Donovan and Paul Dunne. By that stage, though, it was apparent that England could not be overtaken on the count back and it really mattered only to Niall Gorey on a personal basis when he was unable to hold on to his one hole lead over James White at the 18th.

England, by then, had squeezed home, leaving Muskerryman Gorey more than a little disappointed but proud of an unusual record of halving five of his matches and winning the sixth for an unbeaten record.