ILGU - Day 1 of Ladies and Girls Home Internationals

Wednesday marked the beginning of the 2016 Home Internationals in a warm but very windy Conwy as both girl’s and ladies teams took on the reigning champions, England. The girl’s team took to the course early this morning with the 3 pairings comprised of Niamh McSherry & Valerie Clancy, Annabel Wilson & Mairead Martin and Julie McCarthy & Lauren Walsh. The first two matches were as tight as most expected to be with Niamh & Valerie making the turn 1 down but Annabel & Mairead 1 up. Niamh & Valerie showed great grit and determination and fought back to level the match on 16 and finish out the match all square. Annabel & Mairead gathered more and more momentum as the round went on and finished with a 4&3 win. The third pairing of Julie & Lauren never seemed to get the upper hand on their opponents as they fell 5 shots behind after 9 and unfortunately weren’t able to overturn their opponents blinding start and lost 5&4.

The three ladies pairings consisted of Olivia Mehaffey & Louise Coffey, Jessica Ross & Paula Grant and Maria Dunne & Jessica Carty, in that order. Olivia & Louise showed how strong a pairing they are as they breezed through the first 9 holes 4 shots up on Samantha Giles and Emma Allen. That game would soon finish on the 13th with a comprehensive 7&5 victory for the Irish duo. Jessica & Paula also gained the upper hands on their opponents with a 1 shot lead after 6. The English couple fought back to square the game off after 9 but the Ulster pair pulled away and maintained a 2 shot lead to finish on the 17th 2&1. Maria Dunne and Jessica Carty was the final match of the morning and was again a ding dong battle against Gemma Clews & Sophie Lamb. Bar a brief few holes after the 9th in which the Irish pair were 1 shot ahead, the vast majority of the match was all square and would finish that way to round off the morning.

Afternoon

The afternoon singles was a very exciting affair as both teams traded shots forward and back all afternoon. Annabel Wilson was first out in the afternoon matches but up against a tough opponent in Emily price who had already won her opening foursomes match. Emily managed to keep up the momentum from the morning matches and beat Annabel 3&1. Match two was much the same with Lily-May Humphreys proving too strong for Lurgan’s Niamh McSherry as she carded a 3&2 victory on the 16th. Despite the slow start for team Ireland, the tide began to change as both match 3 and 4 were halved with Julie McCarthy and Rachel Thompson both earning half a point. The final two matches went Ireland's way as Valerie Clancy came into her stride with a 6&5 win over Sharna Dutrieux and Mairead Martin of Killarney beating Isobel Wardle by 1 shot. Mairead’s victory on the 18th ensured that the day was halved and the Irish Girls going into tomorrow’s games full of confidence.

Unfortunately the ladies couldn’t emulate that of the girl’s team in the afternoon as they fell shy losing out in 4 matches and winning 2. The English side got a few early leads in the opening matches, which the Irish ladies were unable to overturn. Louise Coffey, Olivia Mehaffey and Paula Grant all put in great performances but were outmatched by Gemma Clews, Meghan MacLaren and Sophie Lamb respectively. Curtis Cup player Maria Dunne managed to steady the ship with a 3 shot victory over Olivia Winning as did Sinead Sexton with a 5&4 win over Emma Allen. Similarly to the girls, the ladies team finished level with England overall for the day with each team carding 4 ½ points each.  Both teams will be looking to bring their good form into tomorrows games.