Longhirst Hall’s Charlotte Naughton helped the England team win their first European Girls’ Team Championship in 19 years at Gothenburg’s Golf Club in Sweden.
Meanwhile, Rosie Belsham and Jess Baker were part of the England women’s team which won bronze in Spain, as the boys’ team won silver in Austria.
The girls reached the match play stages of the competition before defeating Denmark 5-2 and Italy 4-3 to reach Saturday’s final. Despite being 2-0 down to Germany after the morning foursomes, the girls were in scintillating form to win four of their five singles matches in the afternoon to seal a 4.5-2.5 win.
“The team clearly played well all week, but the highlight has to be the comeback on the final day,” said assistant women’s and girls’ performance manager India Clyburn. “From losing both foursomes to going on to win in the final, it took immense steeliness and self-belief, and an ability to hit great shots under big pressure. It was even more impressive as our original flight to Finland was cancelled so we only had one practice round heading into the competition. The girls are now part of history and have shown future teams that England can win at this level.
“It’s now five gold medals for the female programme in the last seven years of European Championships that England has competed in. This is an incredible achievement and one that England Golf should be very proud of. We have a world-class coaching team, and we can’t thank them enough for everything they do to support these performances and the development of these young women.”
Meanwhile, the women’s team picked up a bronze medal at Real Sociedad Hípica Española Club de Campo in Spain. They beat Italy 6-1 before going down 4-3 to France in the semi-finals. They then managed to see off Ireland 5-2 on Saturday to finish third in the European Ladies’ Team Championship.
Women’s performance manager Becca Hembrough said: “(women’s national coach) Steve Robinson and I are really proud of the women’s team and their resilience. They dug in across seven days on a very physically demanding course in 35-degree heat. Everyone contributed to qualify strongly and despite taking a knock in the semi-finals, they bounced back when energy levels were low to beat a fighting Irish team. It’s great to be heading home with a medal.”
The boys’ team also had a great weekend after picking up a silver medal in the European Boys’ Team Championship at Diamond Club in Austria. They beat Finland 4.5-2.5 and Sweden 4-1 (due to a reduced competition because of inclement weather), before being beaten 3.5-1.5 by France in the final.
Finally, the men’s team finished seventh in the European Team Championship at Royal Park in Italy. After reaching the match play stages, they went down 4.5-2.5 to the Netherlands and then 3.5-1.5 to Italy before bouncing back to beat Spain 3.5-1.5 on the final day (both latter matches were reduced due to adverse weather).
