Championships - Seniors' Home International Matches 2009
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2009 Champions - Scotland
01.10.2009
Scotland win the 2009 Senior Ladies' Home International Matches
Scotland made no mistake on the final day of the Senior Ladies' Home International Matches at Newport Golf Club, Wales.Having first beaten Ireland and then England, the Scots won the title and the Sue Johnson Trophy for the first time, completing a 100 per cent winning record through the three days by beating last year’s winners, Wales, 5 ½-2 ½ today.
England, trailing 2-1 after the foursomes, rallied to draw 4-4 with Ireland and finished with 1 1/2pt, to be runners-up ahead of Wales (1pt) and Ireland (1/2pt).
Skipper Pam Williamson’s Scotland team showed no last-day nerves as they captured the morning foursomes by 2 ½ to ½ against Wales to make their task in the five afternoon singles that much easier.
They began the afternoon play needing only 1 ½ pt for a draw which would have been enough to clinch the over-50s team championship but instead the Scots had three singles winners in Heather Anderson, who beat the Senior British champion Vicki Thomas by one hole, Fiona De Vries, who beat Pamela Valentine by 5 and 3, ending the series with a perfect 6pt from six matches, and Mary Smith who beat Jane Rees by 4 and 3 for her fifth point in six outings.
Anderson v Thomas was a game of two halves – the Scot had the better of the first nine, the Welsh player not losing a hole after the turn. Anderson birdied the second and the fifth on her way to a three-hole lead after eight holes.
That was as good as it got for the Scot. Thomas won the 11th and 15th to be only one down on the 16th tee. But Smith managed to halve the last three holes for a win she will remember.
Kathleen Sutherland, who came into the Scotland team only last week when star player Lorna Bennett had to withdraw for domestic reasons, lost her 100 per cent winning record when she lost by 4 and 2 to Ann Lewis.
Lewis birdied the seventh to go one up and also won the eighth before Sutherland birdied the ninth to get back to one down. The Welsh player promptly birdied the 10th to regain a two-hole lead which Sutherland cut back to one hole by winning the 11th.
The exchange of holes continued at the 12th which Lewis won to regain a two-hole lead. Lewis wrapped up a 4 and 2 victory by winning the 15th and 16th.
De Vries won the second, third and fourth against Valentine and stretched her lead to six holes after 11, having birdied the 10th. Valentine did birdie the 14th but that only cut her deficit to four holes and De Vries clinched her sixth victory in three days by winning the 15th for a 5 and 3 success.
That raised Scotland ’s points on the day to 4 ½, which meant they had won the match, whatever the outcome of the ties still to finish.
Smith made it 5 1/2pt in the bag when she beat Jane Rees by 4 and 3. After the third and fourth holes were exchanged, Smith won the sixth to take a lead she did not relinquish.
The Scot won the eighth to go two up, lost the ninth but then won the 11th, 13th and 14th to surge four holes to the good. A half at the next ended the contest.
Wales got their second singles win, thanks to Jean O’Connor, who beat Moira Thomson by 5 and 4. O’Connor took a stranglehold on the outcome by winning the first, third, seventh, eighth and 10th for a five-hole lead. She even birdied the 12th to regain that advantage after the Scot had scored her only success at the 11th. Halves at the 13th and 14th ended the match.
England, whose most successful player, Christine Quinn with five wins out of five was not in their afternoon line-up, wiped out their 1pt lunchtime deficit when Janet Melville beat Ireland ’s Marilyn Henderson 5 and 4 in the lead-off singles.
Melville birdied the fifth, seventh and 10th on her way to a three-hole lead which she consolidated with further successes at the 11th and 14th.
But Ireland notched big wins through Sheena McElroy, 5 and 4 over Jo Ashmore, and Helen Jones, 6 and 5 over Paula Parker.
McElroy made a flying start to win the first four holes, including a birdie at the fourth, against Ashmore. The England player did reduce the lead to two holes by winning the sixth and eighth but that only spurred McElroy to greater things. She won the ninth, 10th, 13th and 14th for victory.
England’s Paul Parker went two up by winning the first two holes but won only one other hole after that. Helen Jones had a terrific hat-trick of birdies at the third, fourth and fifth to turn the tide. After Parker had square the game again by winning the sixth, Jones set off on another great run. She won the seventh, eighth and ninth to go three up, halved the 10th in birdies and then took the 11th, 12th and 13th for a 6 and 5 victory.
England fought back with Lucy Newton scoring her fourth point of the week with a 5 and 4 win over Violet McBride. Newton got in among the birdies to surge five up after eighth holes. She birdied the second, fourth and eighth. McBride retaliated with a birdie at the 10th and also won the 11th but Newton took the 12th and 14th for a 5 and 4 win.
That result meant Ireland lead 4-3 with only the Pat Doran v Susan Dye match to finish. Dye won the first and third and was never behind but needed a birdie at the ninth to regain a one-hole lead. The England player then won the 11th and 13th to go three up. Doran won back the 15th but Dye clinched a 3 and 1 victory at the 17th, earning England a 4-4 draw.
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