Scotland led England by two points going into the afternoon singles but it was not enough to stop the Stroyan Cup holders’ march towards a sixth successive capture of the Girls Home International Matches title at St Annes Old Links Golf Club.
The English, with so many good players in their line-up, took the singles 5-1 for an overall 5-3 win over the Scots for whom their 2013 champion, Connie Jaffrey (Troon Ladies) was the only afternoon winner.
She beat Junior Vagliano Trophy team player Sophie Madden by 5 and 4 after being three up at the turn.
The writing was on the wall for Scotland halfway through the afternoon action on another gorgous summer’s day in Lancashire.
It boiled down to a 3-3 scoreline with two matches to finish in which Scotland’s Clara Young improved to be two up with six to play while Fiona Liddell was one down at the same point.
Young bogeyed the 13th and 15th, lost the 16th to a birdie and then bogeyed the 17th to lose by 2 ad 1 to Olivia Winning, the Rotherham girl who won the Helen Holm Scottish Open Strokeplay title at Troon in April.
Liddell lost by a similar margin to Sophie Madden, a GB and I junior international, who won the 13th and 16th when the crunch came. Scotland skipper Laura Walker has not given up hope yet.
“Ireland could yet do us a good turn by beating England on the last day while we have to beat Wales,” she said.
“But the hardest job is raising our team spirit again. Chins up will be my order of the day. We have to bounce back and show what we are made of. The core of next year’s Scotland girls team is here and they have to learn to cope with results like this.”