The opening day of the R&A Senior Home Internationals proved to be a tight affair on what was a glorious day on the Castlerock links as Ireland take a slender 2.5 point overall lead heading into day two.
Ireland set the tone for their solid day to come, beginning their opening morning strongly, taking a pair of wins in both the women’s and the men’s foursome matches against Scotland.
Tracy Eakin and Lisa Cullen winning 7&6 before Laura Webb and Alison Taylor defeated Louise Fraser and Ruth Hunter 5&4.
“It was very even for a while and then we had our first pairing who actually managed to win 7&6 so the rest just did so well between them all and I was very proud of the way they played,” said Women’s team captain Marilyn Henderson.
“It wasn’t easy, they were down on occasions and managed to pull it back.”
The men’s team followed suit shortly after with Karl Bornemann, Steve Graham, Alan Condren and Castlerock’s own David Mulholland securing wins in Match 1 and Match 2.
The afternoon singles were next up, and the Irish women once again took a narrow win over their Scottish counterparts, Alison Taylor (7&6), Laura Webb (5&3), Lisa Cullen (4&3) and a half for Tracy Eakin giving them a 3.5 to 2.5 win.
“It was all very, very close, they did extremely well. I think the greens are quite tricky, they look as if they are very fast but in fact they are not as fast as they might be,” said Henderson.
Ireland lead by the narrowest of margins at the top of the women’s leaderboard, just half a point above England and with Wales up next, Henderson is keen to keep it all positive at this early stage.
“I have to give in the team for tomorrow any second now. We will be playing Wales tomorrow and they had a very good win this afternoon against the English. I really, really want them to enjoy the time that they are here because the weather is beautiful and they are a very good bunch, they all get on very well together so looking forward to what they are going to do tomorrow.”
The Irish men suffered defeat in the opening match of their afternoon singles but quickly steadied the ship putting together some impressive performances across their remaining five matches, Tony Cleary (3&2), Karl Bornemann (3&2), Alan Condren (2&1), Steve Graham (2&1) and Jody Fanagan (1up) all picking up victories in their 5 to 1 win over Scotland.
The men picked up 7 points on the day to take a 2-point lead over England in their individual table and that paired with the women’s 5.5 first day points sees the home side edge themselves in front by 2.5 heading into tomorrow’s action.
Currently lying in second place, England were close to perfection in their opening foursomes session against Wales, the women’s team taking victory in all three matches (5&4, 2up and 5&4) while the men suffered just one defeat, losing out in Match 1 3&1 before taking victories in Match 2 (2&1) and Match 3 (3&2).
Wales were quick to make a turnaround in the women’s singles however, winning three of their matches and taking a half in two others to take a 4 to 2 afternoon win before the men played out a stalemate in their tie, both nations sharing three wins a piece.
With Ireland on 12.5, England on 10, Wales on 8 and Scotland on 5.5 the hosts will be smiling tonight but it is still very much all to play for with two more days of action down for decision.
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