Adelaide bushfires: Hot reception in store

as GB and I team set off for South Australia

Great Britain and Ireland's team of Connie Jaffrey (Scotland), Charlotte Thomas (Singapore),  Bronte Law (England), Chloe Williams (Wales) and Hayley Davis (England), with captain Elaine Farquharson-Black (Scotland) and Ladies Golf Union chairman Trish Wilson (England), set off Monday morning, from various points in the world, for Australia and the defence of the Astor Trophy, an international team match-play tournament, played every four years.

GB and I are the holders, having won what used to be called the Commonwealth Tournament, at Fairhaven GC, Lancashire in 2011 with a team, skippered by Tegwen Matthews,  that comprised Holly Clyburn, Kelly Tidy, Kelsey MacDonald, Pamela Pretswell and Amy Boulden.

(Lydia Ko, then the No 1 female amateur in the world,was in the New Zealand team that week).

Grange Golf Club is where the 2015 tournament, which also involves Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, is to be played from January 12 to 16 ... and that club is based at Adelaide, South Australia, where bush fires are raging at the moment.

You can take it that Elaine and her team are in for a very hot reception!

 NEWS FROM ADELAIDE

As bushfires continue to burn in the Adelaide Hills, here are some eyewitness reports from a dramatic and harrowing weekend at height of a very hot summer in South Australia.

Right at this moment, residents in the Adelaide Hills are being confronted by a fire which hasn't been seen in the hills since the 1983 bushfires of Ash Wednesday. At the moment, we have a fire which is extremely dangerous and it is burning under extremely adverse conditions ... Our fears have been realised today. We have a significant fire of a dangerous nature under very adverse weather conditions marching its way through the hills.

          South Australia Country Fire Service chief Greg Nettleton

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There is not a fire service anywhere in the world that could put out this fire at the moment.

          Ian Tanner, Country Fire Service

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There's always a resilience, I think, about the South Australian  spirit and I think that's on show again through this event. But I think the nation has also demonstrated an enormous sense of camaraderie. The other ministers and premiers in other states, the other counterpart fire captains across the nation rushed to offer support and the Commonwealth Government has also offered its support.

South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill

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The smoke became so heavy ... we heard from neighbours that embers were starting to fall so that's when we decided that was the time to go. Mainly we were worried about the pine trees around this property.

Gumeracha residents Meg and David Smyth