England beat Ireland 8-1 to win Home Internationals
15th September 2011

England swept to a magnificent victory in the Home Internationals when they defeated Ireland 8-1 in today's final match of the series at Hillside, Lancashire.

The result gave them a clean sheet of three wins from three matches and their first Home Internationals victory since 2007.

This is probably the youngest team ever to represent England in the ladies' Home Internationals and includes five teenagers, aged from 15 to 19.

They didn't lose a game to Ireland: they halved one foursomes and one singles and won all the others. Earlier in the week they beat both Wales and Scotland 6-3.

England took the advantage over Ireland in the morning with 2½ points from the three closely contested foursomes, which all went to the 18th green.

Charlotte Ellis and Charlotte Wild continued their successful partnership with a halved match. Bronte Law and Georgia Hall put England ahead when they beat European champion Lisa Maguire and her partner. British champion Lauren Taylor and the 2010 titleholder Kelly Tidy added another point with their one-up win.

In the singles there was simply no stopping England. Lauren Taylor, Kelly Tidy, Georgia Hall, Holly Clyburn and Bronte Law all won their matches while Charley Hull contributed a half.

The England players were, in the main, ahead in their games but the matches were close. Georgia Hall secured the biggest winning margin, finishing on the 16th, while three games went to the 17th and two to the 18th.

In the day's other match Wales beat defending champions Scotland 5-4 and finished runner-up with two wins. Ireland were third with one win, while Scotland lost all three matches.

England results
Foursomes
Charlotte Ellis (Minchinhampton) & Charlotte Wild (Mere) halved with Gillian O'Leary & Charlene Reid
Bronte Law (Bramhall) & Georgia Hall (Remedy Oak) beat Lisa Maguire & Paula Grant 2up
Lauren Taylor (Woburn) & Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale) beat Louise Coffey & Karen Delaney 1 up