Ireland came down to earth with a bang yesterday in the Women's Amateur Home International Golf Championship at Royal St David's, Harlech, with an 8-1 hammering by England and now face Scotland today needing at least a share of the spoils to avoid the wooden spoon.

Although the Irish lost all three foursomes and the singles 5-1, the singles score-line is a little flattering to England as four of the matches went as far as the l7th. In the battles between the champions of Ireland and England, Alison Coffey found Duggleby too hot to handle and slipped to a 3 and 2 reverse. The only Irish winner was new cap Sinead Keane, who beat Cloe Court 3 and 2. Keane had produced heroics to help Ireland to their halve with Wales on Wednesday and certainly justified the selectors faith in her as she always had the beating of Court.

Level par and two up at the turn, Keane, a 27 year old Dublin Computer Engineer, won the 12th to go three ahead and then a series of halves saw her home.