IRELAND ON COURSE TO WIN THE SENIOR HOME INTERNATIONALS AT ELIE

Helen Jones and Pat Jones - Morning Winners

Ireland are still on course to win the Senior Home Internationals for the first time with a 100 per cent record through the three days at Elie. But they had to come from behind to take a 2-1 foursomes lead over Scotland.
England led Wales 2-1 at lunchtime in the other match.
Sheena McElroy and Carol Wickham put the first point on the board for the Irish with a 7 and 6 win over Heather Anderson and May Hughes. The Irish pair won the first hole but it was their great run from the fourth to the ninth, during which they won five of the six holes, that proved decisive.
The Scots did not win a hole. They went seven down on the 11th and a half at the next hole ended the lopsided contest.
Scotland levelled it at 1-1 when Lorna Bennett and Alison Bartlett beat Suzanne Corcoran and Kate Evans by 4 and 3. The Scots lost the second but then won the third, fourth, seventh and eighth to be three up. Corcoran and Evans won back the ninth to be two down at the turn.
After four halved holes in succession, Scotland suddenly had the match won with back-to-back gains at the 14th and 15th.
Scotland's sisters, Mary Smith and Anne Ryan, looked set to give their side the lunchtime lead when they won the 11th with a par 3 to be three up on the Irish stalwart pair of Helen Jones and Pat Doran. But the latter snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a great inward half during which they won the 14th and 15th and then the par-5 17th with an eagle 3, thanks to a huge putt from Doran.
Down the last, the Irish recovery carried them to victory with Smith and Ryan taking three putts to get down from the "Valley of Sin" in front of the 18th green for a bogey 5 while while Jone and Doran two-putted from the back of the green for a winning par 4.