Wales Battle Hard for Third Place at Home Internationals

Wales challenged hard at the Home Internationals, going into the final day with a chance of winning the overall title for the first time before slipping to narrow defeat against winners England.

However a young Wales team acquitted themselves well with an earlier victory over Scotland and draw against Ireland, the event held at Woodhall Spa in England, the fourth time the Men’s and Women’s Internationals have been held jointly.

It meant Wales finished behind England, level with Ireland overall, but were nudged back into third place by half a match point, while the Men’s and Women’s teams were each also placed third by narrow margins.

The Home Internationals see teams of nine men and seven women from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales compete and such strength in depth is usually harder for Wales against bigger and higher resourced nations.

“It was three good days and fabulous to see a young Wales team step up and compete really well,” said Wales Golf Director of High Performance and Pathway, Gareth Jenkins.

“It was great to open with the draw against Ireland on Day one, then a really good win against Scotland in a tight match.

“All of that set up a key match against England on the final day with a chance to win the title. We pushed them hard with some high quality golf, so there was some good learning.

“It was great motivation for those players to push on, a young team with quite a few making their international debut or having not played too much for us in the past, so it was great to see them step up and take the opportunity to grow.

“The scores were shared around and there was a great attitude, for instance Tomi Bowen battling against Scotland through illness, he was really struggling and could not play in the afternoon. A couple of other players went down with it too, so the team showed good resilience.

“It is hard to single anyone out but Caolan Burford won five out of his six matches which is great, and Emily James won all her singles finishing really strongly on the 18th each time.

“She eagled that hole on the final day to win her game against England in the last match on the course, so that was a nice way for the team to finish.”

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It was the last time as Men’s Captain for Jonathan Williams, while Women’s Captain Louise Davies also made a significant impression.

“Jonathan has been an awesome captain over the last five or so years,” said Jenkins. “He puts the team and the players first and they appreciate that.

“He is a great supporter of Wales Golf and will continue to be in other ways. Louise was fantastic for the women bringing a different dynamic and culture as a professional who has come through the amateur structure.

“The women’s team recently equalled their best ever qualification in the European Team Championships of fifth place and they just carried that form into the Home Internationals.

“Neil Matthews and Gareth James were also excellent as the lead coaches, they always go above and beyond for the players. It was a good environment to be around.

“It all came together, and it was great for us to be competing at that level, hopefully it will inspire the players to go on to bigger things in the future.”

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Wales drew their opening match with Ireland, falling behind in the morning foursomes before coming back in the singles, with Emily James, Harriet Lockley and Carys Worby winning the bottom three matches to complete the comeback.

Then Wales beat Scotland by 11 matches to 10, set up by a clean sweep by the women in the morning foursomes, Luca Thomson, Lockley and Emily James also winning their singles. Brother Alex James won his singles for the second day running as well.

There were no fewer than four tied matches against England while another five matches were decided on the 18th, England winning three of those to Wales’s two, which showed just how tightly contested the match turned out to be.

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