Scotlands golfing girls in Finland with team captain Margaret MacNaughtan on the extreme right. Click on the image to enlarge.

Scots girls improve to make Second

Match-play Flight in Finland

Scotland's girls shook off their first-day nerves and improved by 11 strokes to qualifying for the Second Flight match-play at the European girls' team golf championship at Kokkola Golf Club, Finland.
That was better than 12 months ago at Murcar Links when the Scots - a different team of four it has to be said, failed to come through the stroke-play qualifying rounds among the leading 16 countries and were doomed to play in a fag-end flight of also-rans.
Borders women's champion Lesley Atkins (Minto) was again the top individual Scot. She had a 75 for a total of 151 and was joint 17th in the standings.
Rachael Watton (Mortonhall) shaved six shots off her first-day effort with a 74 for 154 and a share of 33rd place.
Sammy Leslie from Westhill, Aberdeen was another to improve by a handful of shots with a 79 for 162 and joint 60th place.
Ailsa Summers (Carnoustie Ladies), the Angus girls' and women's county champion, had a 91 for 177 and 73rd place.
The Irish wonder twins Leona and Lisa Maguire are making even more headlines.
Leona followed up a first-round 77 with a superb 67 for a level par total of 144 to be the leading individual in the qualifying rounds.
Sister Lisa had a 74 for 146 and was fifth best.
The efforts of the Maguires, backed up by America-based Stephanie Meadow (Royal Portrush) and Laura McCarthy, ensured that Ireland were the team with the lowest team total and they are No 1 seeds in the championship flight which also includes Spain, Finland, England, Switzerland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Belgium.
Alongwith Scotland in the Second Flight are France, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Wales and Norway.
QUALIFYING TOTALS
Championship Flight
439 IRELAND 221 218.
442 SPAIN 222 220.
443 FINLAND 224 219
450 ENGLAND 225 225.
452 SWITZERLAND 234 218, SWEDEN 231 221, CZECH REP 227 225
455 BELGIUM 228 227
Second Flight
455 FRANCE 232 223.
457 GERMANY 231 226.
460 NETHERLANDS 226 234, AUSTRIA 231 229.
462 DENMARK 232 121.
463 WALES 231 232
465 NORWAY 234 230.
467 SCOTLAND 239 228.
Third Flight
475 ITALY 243 232
485 GREECE 247 238
503 LATVIA 247 256.

Leading individual totals
Par 144 (2 x 72)
144 Leona Maguire (Ire) 77 67.
145 Sherlyn Popelka (Swe) 74 71.
145 Anna Arrese (Spa) 75 70, Tonje Daffinrud (Net) 70 75.
146 Lisa Maguire (Ire) 72 74.
Selected Scores:
148 Hayley Davis (Eng) 73 75 (jt 12th).
149 Katie Bradbury (Wal) 73 76, Stephanie Meadow (Ire) 72 77 (jt 14th).
151 Lesley Atkins (Sco) 76 75, Alex Peters (Eng) 75 76, Kelly Tidy (Eng) 77 74 (jt 17th).
154 Rachael Watton (Sco) 80 74, Kelly Miller (Wal) 78 76 (jt 33rd).
155 Heidi Baek (Eng) 77 78 (jt 41st).
159 Laura McCarthy (Ire) 77 82 (jt 50th).
160 Natasha Gobey (Wal) 80 80 (jt 56th).
162 Sammy Leslie (Sco) 83 79 (jt 60th).
167 Chloe Williams (Wal) 85 82 (jt 67th).
177 Ailsa Summers (Sco) 86 91 (73rd).