Women's Golf: Ireland's women were fuming last night at spurning a golden chance to open their Home International campaign at Frilford Heath, Oxfordshire, with a win over champions England.

They established strong positions in two of the three foursomes and were holding their own in the other but disaster struck, particularly in the middle section of this parkland course, and in the end they went into lunch trailing 2½-0½ and in with very little chance of overhauling their rivals.

Ireland shared the singles but slipped to an overall 5½-3½ loss.

The Curtis Cup pair of Tricia Mangan and Martina Gillen were two up after eight holes on Kerry Smith and Sophie Walker, both members of England's World Cup team, but they then lost three in a row to fall behind and never regained the initiative.

Claire Coughlan and Danielle McVeigh were three up after seven holes against Rachel Bell and Naomi Edwards only to drop four on the trot and eventually lose 3 and 2.

Today the Irish face Wales, who yesterday beat Scotland 5-4 and looked impressive.