The winning Scotland team and SLGA officials after the presenation in the Whitchurch clubhouse (image by Cal Carson Golf Agency; click on it to enlarge).

SCOTLAND WIN WOMEN'S HOME INTERNATIONALS

TITLE FOR FIRST TIME IN NINETEEN YEARS

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Scotland are women’s home amateur golf international champions for the first time since 1991. That win, 19 years ago, was achieved in Wales, at Aberdovey.
So too was today's one in the pouring rain at Whitchurch Golf Club, Cardiff.
But the weather could not dampen the spirit and fire in skipper Lesley Nicholson’s squad as they beat Ireland 5-4 to claim the Miller Trophy.
The afternoon singles between the two teams with 100 per cent records at the start of the day produced some great golf as the course got wetter and wetter. and certainly great excitement in the Scottish ranks.

“It’s a great feeling to be taking the title back to Scotland,” said team captain Lesley Nicholson. “It went right down to the wire and my players were great. I thought that taking a 2-1 lead from the morning foursomes would be important at the end of the day - and so it proved.”

The triumph followed on to Scotland's capture of the European senior women's amateur team title in Berlin last weekend and, in July, the Scots gained the bronze medals in the European women's amateur team championship at La Manga.

The Scots at Whitchurch shared the singles 3-3 against an Irish line-up that included three in-form Curtis Cup players, Danielle McVeigh and the 15-year-old Maguire twins, Leona and Lisa.
But Scotland too had a Curtis Cup player of title-winning class.The fifth and winning point was delivered by Pamela Pretswell who beat Leona Maguire with a birdie at the last hole.
The Glasgow University student from Hamilton won five out of six games. Winner of the British stroke-play title, also in Wales two or three weeks ago, the Hamilton-based player is playing the finest golf of her life.

Ireland cancelled out Scotland’s one-point lunchtime lead when Danielle McVeigh beat Jane Turner by 6 and 5. McVeigh was three up after four holes, having birdied the second, third and fourth, and she never relinquished her grip on the outcome.
McVeigh increased her lead with wins at the sixth, 11th, 12th and 13th.
Scotland edged ahead 3-2 with a two-hole win by Kelsey MacDonald over Mary Dowling in a battle of the Scottish and Irish champions.
There was never more than a hole in it until the 18th green with first one player, then the other having a one-hole lead. All square after 15 holes, MacDonald won the 16th with a par 4, halved the 17th and birdied the 18th for a two-hole win.
Dowling had birdies at the fourth, 11th and 13th. MacDonald had an eagle 3 at the fifth and that birdie at the last.
Louise Kenney increased Scotland’s overall advantage to 4-2 when she beat Sinead O’Sullivan by 3 and 2, having been three up at the turn and four ahead after 12
Then Ireland won a third point through Charlene Reid who beat Megan Briggs by 3 and 1. Two down after 11, Charlene turned the match around by winning the 12th, 13th, 14th, 16th and 17th, with a birdie.
But Scotland got the title-winning fifth point when Pamela Pretswell beat Leona Maguire by one hole, thanks to a pitch-and-putt birdie 4 at the long 18th. It had been a classic match-play encounter with Pretswell two up after five but two down after 11 to the resurgent Leona. Pretswell won the 12th and 13th to square the match but slipped one down again when Maguire won the 15th with a birdie 2.
The Scot squared the match with a 4 at the 16th, halved the 17th and then produced that all-important birdie at the 18th.
Lisa Maguire rang the curtain down on a tremendous afternoon’s play by both teams when she won by one hole against Rachael Watton. There was never more than a hole in either way and it was a great performance by the Mortonhall teenager, making her debut for the full Scotland team this week, to take an in-form Curtis Cup player, albeit younger than herself, all the way to the 18th green.

England and Wales were playing to avoid the Wooden Spoon. It finished 4 1/2pt each with England making up a 2-1 morning deficit.


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MOST SUCCESSFUL PLAYERS AT THE 2010 WHI WERE

6pt Lisa Maguire (Ireland).
5pt Leona Maguire (Ireland), Pamela Pretswell (Scotland).
4 1/2pt Kelsey MacDonald (Scotland).
4pt Becky Harries (Wales), Megan Briggs (Scotland).
3 1/2pt Louise Kenney (Scotland), Tara Davies (Wales).
3pt Kelly Tidy (England), Danielle McVeigh (Ireland), Laura Murray (Scotland), Amy Boulden (Wales), Gemma Bradbury (Wales).

NEXT YEAR'S WOMEN'S HOME INTERNATIONALS WILL BE HOSTED BY HILLSIDE GOLF CLUB, SOUTHPORT, LANCASHIRE