When Claire Dowling was chosen last year as non-playing captain of this week's Britain and Ireland Vagliano Trophy team, she knew that advice from a certain source could be invaluable towards doing the job well. So she approached the woman who had been responsible for one of the greatest disappointments of her career.

Diane Bailey created a major controversy in 1988 by omitting the then Claire Hourihane from all four series of matches in defence of the Curtis Cup at Royal St George's, Sandwich. To some, the decision was unjustifiably harsh; to others it was simply inexplicable.

But this was the same skipper who had achieved the unthinkable at Prairie Dunes, Kansas two years previously. Where all other teams - Walker Cup, Ryder Cup and Curtis Cup - had failed, she had broken new ground by leading the first British and Irish line-up to victory on American soil.

It seemed too much of a coincidence that the Ryder Cup breakthrough should come a year later at Muirfield Village and that the Walker Cup players would achieve their piece of history at Peachtree, Atlanta, in 1989.

So it was that in a remarkably balanced gesture, Dowling put personal feelings aside and focused on the broader picture. And she plans to apply some of Bailey's advice when the Vagliano matches take place at North Berwick this weekend (July 24th and 25th). Indeed it may remain valid even into next year, when Dowling captains the Curtis Cup team at Ganton.

"I was on five teams with Diane and I knew how difficult some of her decisions must have been," she recalled last weekend. "I told her I didn't have a problem with what had happened at Sandwich and she said she was glad to hear that. She had felt badly about it for more than 10 years.

"Sure, I was terribly disappointed not to have got a match, but from my own experience of captaincy, I can now see that you have to weigh things up and do what you believe is best. I know that certain people remain convinced there was some hidden agenda at work during the 1988 matches. But I'm satisfied that that was never the case."

The 1986 Curtis Cup team had been forged, effectively, during the Vagliano matches in Hamburg the previous year. That was when the nine-member British and Irish line-up combined in a splendid 14-10 victory. The only problem was who to leave out of the eight-member Curtis Cup side.

In the way of successful teams, fate took a hand. Maureen Madill, whose distinguished contribution in Hamburg would have made her a front-runner for Prairie Dunes, decided to turn professional in April 1986. So, eight players remained. And of those, the selectors decided to bring the youthful Karen Davies into the side in place of Linda Bayman.

Mary McKenna, Claire Hourihane and Lillian Behan were the three Irish representatives; England had Jill Thornhill and Trish Johnson, Wales had Vicki Thomas and Davies and Scotland contributed the remarkable Belle Robertson.

The veteran Scot, who shared a room with Davies, later recalled the youngster's selection as something of an inspired decision, especially in view of her success on the US college scene. "Listening to her talking about the American girls was most reassuring," she said. "On our side of the Atlantic, we had read only of their more spectacular feats, but Karen was able to tell us how so-and-so had an 85 in some college event and played really badly."

On another level, she had reason to be grateful for Bailey's leadership qualities, not least for the fact that the Englishwoman gave her a wonderful swansong in the representative arena. At 50, Robertson had played her way into the side by winning the Scottish Championship at St Andrews.

"Diane Bailey got everything it was possible to get out of the players," she said. "A really great captain is a rarity and I have no doubt that her's will be a difficult act to follow. She had the marvellous knack of getting across what she wanted in one-liners, rather than lectures."

She also placed huge emphasis on fitness and of the need for her players to protect themselves in temperatures which soared over 100F. Sun cream and sun hats were in plentiful supply and team members were left in no doubt about the folly of getting burned. Then there was the need to adapt to a typically American course.

"During practice out there, Diane discovered that there were four of us who weren't particularly good at the soft, flop-shot that would be crucial from rough around the greens," said Dowling. "So she piled the four of us - Lillian, myself and two others - into a large buggy and drove us out to the middle of the course. "She then said we would stay there and work on the shot. Lillian seemed a bit miffed at this and demanded that Diane should show us what she meant. Whereupon our captain did just that, perfectly. So we stayed there for more than an hour. And we got it right."

According to Robertson in her book The Woman Golfer, Behan's background was quite similar to her own. The Scot wrote: "She, too, had country connections, albeit her work was as a stable girl at the Curragh. Lillian has a positively regal gait and the look of a champion."

Of Dowling, she commented: "Claire is a wonderfully tidy little golfer who should never be underestimated." And she wrote of McKenna: "Mary has been a great friend of mine for many years and I am perhaps too close to her to give a fair appraisal of her career. However, I have always been a great admirer of her talent and, in particular, the length she commands with her long irons.

"In the context of the 1986 Curtis Cup match, we added up to a useful pair in that, where the American girls had little experience of foursomes, we were veterans in this department and knew each other's game inside out."

Indeed the Americans had problems early on. Like on the second hole of the opening foursomes where referee P J Boatright judged Danielle Ammaccapane to be guilty of building a stance in a bunker and awarded the hole to Johnson and Davies.

THEN there was the friction between Ammaccapane and her partner, Dottie Mochrie-Pepper, as to which ball they should play. This prompted an exasperated US captain, Judy Bell, to remark acidly: "I've got eight players and four foursomes partnership of which only three can play. So if you pair can't get on together, that solves my problem."

In a broader sense, Bell's problems were only starting. Britain and Ireland achieved a clean sweep of the first day's foursomes. And after Johnson, Thornhill and Behan had gone on to take the first three singles, the visitors were 6-0 up before the Americans registered their first point.

Such was the quality of the visitors' play that they were not flattered by a 6 1/2 to 2 1/2 lead at the end of the first day. And they were assured of a tied match, at least, when Robertson holed a 12-foot putt on the 18th to secure a half in the third foursomes on the following morning.

Dowling, who had lost by 2 and 1 to Cindy Schreyer on the opening day, gained revenge with a 4 and 3 win over the same player in the last match on the course. So, the Irish contribution was significant: Behan had three points from two foursomes wins and a first-day singles; McKenna shared two and a half points from three foursomes with Robertson; while Dowling got a point from two singles matches.

Almost incredibly, the winning margin was a whopping 13-5. But to fully appreciate the magnitude of the team's achievement, it is necessary to look at the results of previous matches in the US since the current format was adopted at Royal Porthcawl in 1964.

In five trips to the US from 1966 to 1982, inclusive, British and Irish teams had not only lost every time; they never got closer than within five points of their rampant hosts. And the lowest point had been reached in the challenge immediately prior to Prairie Dunes, when they were thrashed 141/2 to 31/2 in Denver in 1982.

When a wonderful triumph had been secured and a new chapter had been written in transatlantic team golf, the British and Irish players flew back to London. But there was to be no time to celebrate, just yet. From there, they headed to Blairgowrie and the British Women's Strokeplay Championship which, for Dowling, was to produce a stunning postscript to Prairie Dunes.

In the event, she and McKenna hired a car at Edinburgh airport and drove the 60 miles together to the famous Rosemount stretch. And, as it turned out, Dowling had the greatest victory of her career, beating Curtis Cup colleague Johnson in a play-off for the title.

She takes up the story: "Mary and I went to Blairgowrie with the Curtis Cup in the car. Now we were returning with another trophy. And knowing our baggage would be way overweight when we got back to Edinburgh airport, we decided to dress up in our Curtis Cup blazers and skirts.

"Anyway, as luck would have it, we ran out of petrol. So I volunteered to head off down the road for help. Next thing I was at a roundabout and a police car stopped to see what the problem was. When I explained our predicament, he concluded from my uniform that we were golfers.

"The only women golfers I know are Belle Robertson and Mary McKenna," he said. Whereupon I declared: "Come with me and I'll introduce you to one of them. So it was that we got our petrol and this Scottish policeman met one of his golfing idols."

With that, the Irish duo headed home to a wonderful reception at Dublin Airport and more was to follow from their clubs. Dowling had given Woodbrook cause for double celebration; Donabate toasted yet another McKenna success and the Curragh had follow-up celebrations to the British Championship success of Behan the previous year.

It was an especially gratifying finale for Robertson. After holing the critical putt in the last foursomes, she wondered if she might be called on for singles duty that afternoon. But with a typical economy of words, Bailey said to her gently: "Shall we let you go out on a high note?"