Defending champions Ulster suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of Connacht in the Interprovincial Championship, sponsored by Golfsure, which got underway at Royal Dublin yesterday. Trailing 21/211/2 after the foursomes, Connacht made a great recovery in the singles, winning six of the nine matches for an overall 71/251/2 victory.

Connacht got off to the best possible start in the singles when young Daire Loughnane scored an emphatic 4 and 3 win over North of Ireland champion Michael Hoey. Colin Waters from Loughrea followed with a 5 and 4 win over international Andrew McCormick and further successes were recorded by David Mortimer, Sean McTernan, Mark O'Sullivan and David Dunne. In a dramatic finish to the second match, Leinster were held to 61/261/2 draw by Munster.

Leinster held the upper hand after taking the foursomes 21/211/2 but the singles produced an exciting tussle. Noel Fox won the top match against Mark Murphy but Munster moved ahead with wins by Tim Rice, John Morris and Karl Bornemann. Leinster responded with wins by Mark Campbell, Gary Cullen and Michael McDermott. However, Adrian Morrow went down by one hole to Pat Murray leaving the outcome to be decided by the final match. Justin Kehoe, needing a half to secure victory for Leinster, was one down playing the 18th against Danny Sugrue. But after both players went out of bounds with their second shots, the hole was halved in sixes leaving Sugrue the winner by one hole.