Ireland narrowly beaten by England
Ireland lost out in the morning foursomes 3½-1½ with Waterford Castle’s Kevin Phelan and Ballymena’s Dermot McElroy the only
Irish pair to notch up a win, claiming the first match 2&1,
while Dunne and Jack Hulme fought back to sneak a halve against Michael Saunders and Jamie Rutherford.
In the afternoon singles, Ireland had a fast start claiming 2½ points from the first four games — Mourne’s Reeve Whitson defeated Craig Hinton on the last after being behind for almost the whole round, while McElroy bagged a 3&2 win over Ben Stow.
Headfort’s Brian Casey kept the momentum going to claim a last green victory over Paul Howard, after Gary Hurley was on the wrong end of a 4&2 defeat by debutant Jimmy Mullen.
Ireland’s middle order needed to perform, but East of Ireland champion Dunne and Moyola Park’s Chris Selfridge were put to the sword by Ryan Evans and Harry Casey, respectively, leaving the final two matches on course meaningless.
However, Dubliner Gavin Moynihan and Headfort’s McNamara salvaged some consolation in producing their side’s biggest winning margins of the day.
Today, Ireland will face defending champions Scotland who kicked off their campaign with a clinical 9½-5½ win over Wales.
* Gareth Lappin led four Irish teenagers into the knock-out phase of the British Boys Open Amateur Golf Championship in Cheshire yesterday.
The 18-year-old international from Belvoir Park added a 77 at Royal Liverpool to his stunning 68 the previous day at Wallasey to comfortably make the match-play stages.
Faithlegg’s Robin Dawson, the hero of Ireland’s Home International success last week improved on his first round carding a 73 after the opening 71.
But perhaps the best recovery of the day was that of Dublinner Paul McBride who returned a fine 71 At Wallasey and a 147 aggregate. He made it with five strokes to spare thanks to halves of 36 and 35. Jake Whelan of Newlands returned a 77 for a 152 total and squeezed in grabbing one of the last places among the 70 who survive to fight another day.
* Ariana Coyle Diez carries Irish hopes into the third match-play round of the British Girls Open Amateur Championship at Fairhaven on the Lancashire coast this morning.
The Dublin teenager gave two outstanding performances to move into the last 16 where she now faces Denmark’s Marlene Hansen.
Diez who plays out of the Elm Park club was fast out of the blocks against Begium star Elodie Van Dievoet and established a three-hole advantage by the turn, maintaining that lead despite the pressure to record an excellent 4&3 victory in the opening round.
Mary Doyle from The Heath who had produced an inspirational display on Tuesday to qualify for the knock-out phase battled bravely against Germany’s Sonya Knebel. After being two down at halfway she fought hard but in the end lost on the home green.
Top seed Bethan Popel lost at the 19th in the second round to Italian Carlotta Ricolfi.
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