Great Britain and Ireland remain winless in the Junior Vagliano Trophy but this year’s match at Blairgowrie remained close to the end, the Continent of Europe eventually running out 10-8 victors yesterday.
FORMAT: Team matchplay – 3 foursomes & 6 singles both days
The Scottish course hosted the seventh playing of the U-16s event and the visitors were never behind thanks to a strong showing in the Friday singles.
GB&I went into the final day trailing by two and both sessions were halved with Rosie Bee Kim (The Buckinghamshire) and Isla McDonald-O’Brien (Shrewsbury) once again shining for the hosts. The duo remained unbeaten throughout the weekend.
The English duo helped their side make a strong start at the top of the order but the European players at the bottom of the order delivered in style and the result was not in doubt for most of the final afternoon.
“It’s wonderful to have won,” said Myrte Eikenaar, the non-playing captain of the Continent of Europe. “The girls really fought it out, especially in the morning when they maybe weren’t playing their best golf and still getting one and a half points. It was great to see them show heart.
“We were quickly up in the afternoon matches and that seemed to give the girls a lot of confidence to keep going to the end and it was nice that it ended up being the last match to decide the outcome.”
The home team needed to win the final singles by 2.5 points to claim a first victory in the event which began in 2011.
And their top three delivered. Bee Kim and McDonald-O’Brien were never behind as they did the business again while Maggie Whitehead (Close House) enjoyed a great tussle with Lynn van der Slujis (The Netherlands), taking the last two holes to claim her first win of the weekend.
However in the bottom three ties, the European girls dominated and Denmark’s Johanna Axelsen rounds things off with a 4&3 victory over Sherwood Forest’s Amelia Wan, who did battle back from six down after 10 by winning 11, 13 and 14 but then lost the 15th.
Janet Melville, non-playing captain, Great Britain and Ireland, said: “This is the best performance by the team in this match so I’m really pleased with how we played despite the result.
“They’ve done really well and we only lost one of the sessions overall. I’m especially pleased given the result last year and proud of each player.”