Kylie Walker on her way to an important singles win over England's Charlotte Wild (image by Cal Carson Golf Agency; click on it to enlarge).

Scotland v Wales for title

at Irvine: captain Lesley

warns it will be tough

The golfing flowers of Scotland have a golden chance to end 18 years in the shade by winning the women's home amater internationals title at Irvine Golf Club tomorrow.
They play defending champions Wales in the title decider.
Scotland have 2pt out of two; Wales 1 1/2pt and Ireland and England have 1/2pt each.
The last time the Scots won the Miller Trophy was in 1991 at Aberdovey when their line-up included Curtis Cup players of the calibre of Catriona (Lambert) Matthew, Janice Moodie, Mhairi McKay and Elaine Farquharson and Alison (Rose) Davidson. Skipper was Isobel McIntosh from Inverness.
They had won the title a year earlier at Hunstanton where Elaine, then the Scottish champion, won all six ties. Glory days for Scotland ... but in this Homecoming Year how nice it would be if Catriona's marvellous victory in the Ricoh Women's British Open could be followed up by a Scotland victory at Irvine.
There is no charge for admission and no car parking fee if every golf enthusiast in the West of Scotland wants to home in on Irvine to provide the support for one last big effort.
Going into the last day, the Scots of 2009 are the only team with a 100 per cent record. Today skipper Lesley Nicholson's squad followed up a 5-4 opening day win over Ireland by beating England 5 1/2-3 1/2.
The Scots made a 3-0 clean sweep of the foursomes but then struggled to get the "only" two points they needed from the six afternoon singles.
At one point, England had levelled the scoreline at 3-3 until big-hitter Kylie Walker and Scottish champion Megan Briggs, pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency, recalled to the singles line-up, got the wins that took the home team up to the undefeatable 5pt mark before Louise Kenney added half a point from the last tie to finish.
"The team have done so well over the first two days, they really have," said captain Nicholson. "I just hope they can see it through to the finish now by beating Wales. I am under no illusions that the deciding match is going to be a very tough match. This is the Welsh team that beat England 7-2 on the first day, so that shows what they are capable of."
Wales' title hopes looked in tatters when they lost the foursomes 2-1 to Ireland and then trailed by 3pt with less than an hour's play left in the singles. But this is a Welsh line-up with talent and guts - and they won the last three singles to stay alive - a win over Scotland would see them retain the Miller Trophy - with a 4 1/2-4 1/2 draw against Ireland.
England captain Julie Otto, who as Julie Wade and then Julie Hall was the best female amateur golfer in Britain and Ireland, commented:
“We lost, but played much better than we did against Wales. Against Scotland, we did compete and they played much better today. They really did try and they nearly pulled it off. I couldn’t have asked much more of each and every player on the golf course.
“We are being outgunned by experience. The other teams have players who have competed more times at this level than our girls and it’s showing. We have to use our match tomorrow to give more experience to our players.”
England’s fightback from a 0-3 lunchtime deficit began with their native champion, left-hander Charlie Douglass beating Carly Booth by 3 and 2 in the lead-off singles tite.
Carly won the first two holes but lost the third and fourth to be pulled back to all square. Douglas continued to prosper with wins at the fifth and sixth to lead by two holes at the turn.
Booth rallied to win the11th and 12th to regain equality but Douglass quickened again to win the 13th and 14th and then the 16th with a birdie 2 for the match by 3 and 2. It was Douglass’s third win in four ties.
The England fightback continued with Rachel Jennings beat Pamela Pretswell 3 and 1 to narrow the gap to one point in Scotland’s favour overall.
Jennings was three holes to the good on the sixth tee but Pretswell fought back to square the match by winning the 14th. Jennings then produced a master stroke, holing a chip for a birdie 3 to win the 15th and regain the lead.
The English player promptly went two up with a par at the short 16th and then was conceded the 17th for a 3 and 1 victory. It was Pretswell’s first defeat in four ties and Jennings’ first win in two outings.
England levelled the overall scoreline at 3-3 when Hannah Barwood beat Kelsey MacDonald by 2 and 1.
Barwood took a grip on the outcome by winning the first, the third and the eighth to be three up, although MacDonald won back the ninth and the 11th to be only one down.
Barwood went two up again at the 13th and was able to maintain that lead until MacDonald ran out of holes.
Kylie Walker stopped the slide for Scotland by beating Charlotte Wild 3 and 2. The Scot led throughout and a birdie 4 at the long 11th put her three up. It was Kylie’s third win in a row.
With Scotland leading 4-3 overall, the match was finely poised. The two ties still to finish were both all square with two and three holes respectively to play.
Scottish champion Megan Briggs, who had been three down after five holes to English girls title-holder Holly Clyburn, fought back to win the seventh, eighth and ninth. Then she birdied the 11th to lead for the first time.
Briggs went two up at the 14th but Clyburn was not finished yet. She won the 15th with a par and the short 16th with a birdie 2 to square the match. In a thrilling finish, Briggs edged ahead again with a par 4 at the 17th, which meant she was assured of a halved match at least and that half-point would guarantee Scotland at least a halved match overall with England.
Briggs in fact was able to clinch overall victory for Scotland, beating Clyburn by two holes when the English player conceded the 18th.
The last match of the day to finish ended with honours even between Louise Kenney and Charlotte Ellis.
Kenney had been two up after 12 holes but, in the end, was glad to hole a putt on the last for a half in 4.