Top seeds Ireland were on the wrong end of a thriller as Denmark defeated our men in green 4-3 in the Quarterfinals of the European Amateur Team Championship in Sweden.
In the morning foursomes, Ireland looked an imposing opposition with Dundalk’s Caolan Rafferty partnering Portmarnock’s Conor Purcell while in match two, Amateur Champion James Sugrue linked up with Galway’s Ronan Mullarney.
Unfortunately matches aren’t won on paper, however and Ireland were humbled with 5&4 losses in both contests leaving them with a mountain to climb in the singles.
But climb it they almost did as big wins for Purcell (5&3) and Kilkenny’s Mark Power (4&3) brought Ireland back into the tie. However, narrow one hole losses for Rafferty and Massereene’s Tiarnan McLarnon rendered Sugrue’s 3&2 win redundant as the great Danes prevailed 4-3.
In each bracket, today’s winning teams will now compete for the top four places, meaning those that won in Flight A find themselves in the semi-finals. Whereas, those that lost out today will be compete for final position.
Germany are the only nation with a chance of medals in three events, their ladies, girls and boys will all play semi-final matches on Friday.
Where there was disappointment for the men, there was elation for Ireland in the Boys Championship at Golf de Chantilly in France where Joshua McCabe was the star of the show as Ireland edged old rivals England 4-3.
McCabe twice bettered Boys Amateur Champion, Conor Gough, once alongside Lisburn’s Aaron Marshall and again in the afternoon singles 5&4 to inspire his teammates to a memorable win.
If McCabe was the inspiration, Baltinglass’ Joseph Byrne was the hero as he won the crucial point on the first extra hole to seal Ireland’s place in the semi-final.
At Is Molas, Ireland’s women dropped the last three singles matches in the afternoon to agonisingly lose out to Italy in their quarterfinal match-up.
Wins for Lurgan’s Annabel Wilson and Clandeboye’s Jessica Ross had put Ireland in a commanding 3-1 lead before the Italians reeled off three clutch wins against Paula Grant, Shannon Burke and Lauren Walsh to take the spoils 4-3.
There was much better news for Ireland’s Girls in their Flight B encounter against Norway with the girls in green enjoying a clean sweep on Thursday where Beth Coulter and Sara Byrne were particularly impressive in a 5-0 demolition.
Men’s Scoring HERE
Boy’s Scoring HERE
Women’s Scoring HERE
Girls’ Scoring HERE
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