NORTH OF IRELAND: Rory McNamara is making a bold bid to get back into the men’s Irish senior team and, possibly, today could give the selectors a timely reminder.

The Headfort plus-three player has stormed through to the semi-finals of the North of Ireland Amateur Open Championship with impressive performances yesterday against local lad Matthew McAlpin and Shane Glynn from Carton House.

This morning McNamara will meet room-mate Geoff Lenehan from Portmarnock in the semi-finals while the other match will feature 1997 North of Ireland champion Michael Sinclair (Knock) and Eddie McCormack from Galway.

“I was in the international senior panel in the past but I have been left out recently for whatever reason. If the selectors are watching and think I am worthy of a recall, well and good, and if they don’t then I have plenty of tournaments to carry on with.

“I’ll go to the European Tour qualifying school this year, as an amateur, and see what happens, anyhow,” said the 23-year-old.

In the third round, he hit young McAlpin with a birdie blitz, eight of them plus an eagle but had to be content with a 2 and 1 win as the local member was also in birdie form. Later in the day, McNamara pushed aside Shane McGlynn by 4 and 3.

McNamara has been in good form this season, making the last 16 in the British Amateur Championship, which was won by Alan Dunbar. Against McGlynn, He was three up after eight but lost the ninth hole to eagle three. When he got up from Bobby Locke’s Hollow to make par three at Calamity Corner he was three ahead again, as McGlynn, also in the hollow, failed to make par.

McNamara, who did work on his game with club pro Brendan McGovern before the British Amateur and who spent some time during the winter in Spain, ended the argument with birdie three at 15.

Lenehan has made the cut in all the Irish championships this season and got off to a flier in his quarter-final match with Daniel Vaughan (Ardglass), racing to a four-hole lead after four. Shell-shocked Vaughan managed to halt the charge by winning the fifth hole but four holes again separated the players after 10.

Trouble for the Portmarnock plus-two at 12 and 13 narrowed the gap to two holes but Lernehan drove the green to 10 feet at 15 and holed for eagle two. The 16th was halved to end the tussle.

Eddie McCormack (Galway) has eased through to the last four quietly and now meets 1997 champion Michael Sinclair (Knock) in a repeat of the 2010 West semi-final which McCormack won.

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CHALLENGE TOUR: Colm Moriarty’s four-under-par round of 67 moved him right into contention at the Credit Suisse Challenge at Golf Sempachersee, near Lucerne yesterday, where he is five shots behind Joachim B Hansen of Denmark.

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EUROPEAN BOYS: Ireland’s chances of lifting the European Boys Team Championship in Sweden were dashed yesterday after a dramatic 12 hours in which Spain were disqualified and Scotland elevated to the top flight.

Several hours after the draw was made for the first matchplay round Spain, who had been given third seeding, confessed to officials one of their players had been carrying more than the permitted 14 clubs in their bag – and that meant immediate disqualification. This resulted in Ireland moving into fifth spot and instead of playing hosts Sweden they were pitted against England and the Scots were given the last and final place in the top flight.

The Irish put up a tremendous fight and shared the foursomes 1-1 thanks to an extra-hole victory by Alex Gleeson and Robin Dawson over Max Orrin and Matt Fitzpatrick. In the singles Gleeson from Castle was in great form, winning the first four holes against Ashton Turner and going on to triumph 4 and 3 while at the top of the order Gavin Moynihan did well to get the better of Orrin.

William Russell and John-Ross Galbraith were both outplayed so it all came down to Dawson’s match against Toby Tree. However, after a valiant attempt he lost 2 and 1.

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EUROPEAN GIRLS: Ireland trounced Switzerland 4-1 in the European Girls Team Championship in Germany yesterday. Having failed to make the top flight after the 36 holes of qualifying the Irish knew their best ranking would be ninth and they set out in determined mood to end up in that spot.

Lisa Maguire was the most impressive hardly putting a foot wrong as she overwhelmed Linda Roos by 6 and 4 while her twin sister Leona had to work hard to post a last-green victory over Celia Gimblett. Jean O’Driscoll and the foursome pairing of Jessica Carty and Chloe Ryan also won with the only loser being Olivia Mehaffey, who went down 2 and 1 to Albane Valenzuela. The Irish face Finland today for a place in the flight two final.