ADD the 2009 Women's Home Internationals to the list of Scottish sporting disappointments after the hosts squandered a golden opportunity to win the four-cornered event for the first time in 18 years at Irvine, where the mood on a sun-kissed day turned decidedly gloomy.
Needing only a draw to get their hands back on the Miller Trophy, the Scots were on course after winning the morning foursomes 2-1 against Wales before Carly Booth, the youngest player in the side at 17, secured the first point in the singles to lea
ve them requiring a further one-and-a-half-point in the five remaining afternoon games to claim the crown.
In what was a title decider, they were still in a winning position when Megan Briggs, with four holes to go, and Kylie Waker, with six holes remaining, both held leads in the two matches at the bottom of the order, while Kelsey MacDonald and Pamela Pretswell also had chances to salvage half points ahead of them.
Alas, the dream turned into a nightmare for the Scots in the final hour's play as the last five games all fell to the Welsh, who, in winning 6-3, duly retained the title and recorded what was only their third success overall in the event's history.
While the Scots definitely became a tad slack when the heat was turned up a notch by their opponents, team captain Lesley Nicholson refused to be critical of her players.
"It would be an understatement to say we are disappointed," she said. "We prepared as well as we could have and I am proud of the players as they gave me their all. The Welsh are very strong so to be leading after the foursomes was very good."
Under a blanket of early-morning mist, the foursomes started positively for the Scots as Booth and MacDonald combined to great effect once again, covering the 16 holes in approximately two-under-par as they accounted for the top Welsh pairing of Tara Davies and Amy Boulden. Rarely has a pairing looked such a good fit on the golf course.
For MacDonald, her third success in five outings came at a cost, the Nairn Dunbar player having been badly bitten by midges on the way round which meant administering ointment to try and ease some swelling to her wrist and legs. In the second game, which brought together two pairings that had won both their foursomes earlier in the week, Pretswell and Louise Kenney met their match in the shape of Rhian Wyn Thomas and Gemma Bradbury. After seeing birdie attempts shave the hole at both the 16th and 17th, it was no more than the Welsh duo deserved when Bradbury rolled in a 12-footer for a 3 at the last to secure a hard-earned point.
As that match came to a conclusion, news filtered through that Walker and Booth, who had been successful in their first outing together as tail-gunners the previous day, had lost both the 15th and 16th to go from coasting at three up to feeling a touch twitchy at just one up. The pressure was eased, however, when Wales found trouble off the tee at the 386-yard 17th and, after Turner managed to keep her side in play there, a precious second morning win was in the bag for the Scots.
Unfortunately, that good work all proved to be in vain due to what unfolded in the afternoon and, in the end, it was to prove a very painful experience indeed for the Scots. Nicholson found it difficult to keep her emotions in check and Pretswell, who had performed so well in the earlier part of the week, certainly didn't deserve to be shedding tears of disappointment after losing her match.
• Laura Davies remains on course to retain her title at the UNIQA Ladies Golf Open at Wiener Neustadt in Austria as she maintained a share of the lead after two rounds. The 45-year-old from England is level with Germany's Bettina Hauert and Marjet van der Graaff from Holland, with the trio finishing at eight-under-par 136 before play was suspended due to darkness with just one group left to finish.
Ana Belen Sanchez, Johanna Lundberg and Clare Queen have two holes to play and will complete their second rounds at 7am today.
Hauert shot a second successive round of 68 to Davies' 69 on an overcast and windy day before thunder and lightning hit and the course was evacuated for an hour just before 3pm. Van der Graaff later returned a 67.
Davies carded five birdies and two bogeys. She said: "It's a very good score considering the weather today. It was a lot tougher with the wind. It could have been less because I missed some putts and my only two bogeys were three-putts."
