The second day of match play of the 2022 European Team Championhips has been completed.
Friday saw the semi-final matches take place in Flight A across the continent.
EUROPEAN AMATEUR TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - ROYAL ST. GEORGE'S, ENGLAND
Number-one seeds, Spain faced Denmark in the first semi-final at Royal st. George's.
The first point of the day went to Jose Luis Ballester and David Puig, winning their foursomes match 3&2.
The next foursomes match looked like it was going in favour of Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Søren Lind, who were 2-up with just two holes to play.
However bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes allowed Luis Masaveu and Quim Vidal to force the match into extra holes.
The Spanish side would clinch the second match on the 1st green to make the score 2-0 before lunch.
The defending champions struggled to recover, with the Spanish team winning both of the first two singles matches to secure a spot in Saturday's final.
Spain will face Sweden in the championship match. The Swedish team had a close encounter with hosts, England. After the morning foursomes points were split, the match would be decided by the five afternoon singles.
Tobias Jonsson (4&3) and Henrik Lilja (6&4) secured easy points for the Swedish side, but England fought back with two wins of their own from Barclay Brown and Sam Bairstow. That meant the outcome come down to Adam Wallin and Arron Edwards-Hill's match.
All-square through 14 holes, the match looked like it could go down to the wire. A bogey on the 15th by Edwards-Hill, and an impressive birdie by Wallin on the 16th meant one halved-hole for the Swede would secure victory.
A par on the 17th hole would be enough for Wallin to claim his second decisive singles point in two days, and earn Sweden a spot in the championship match on Saturday.
EUROPEAN LADIES' TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - CONWY GOLF CLUB, WALES
Friday's first semi-final at Conwy Golf Club was a repeat of last year's gold-medal match, with England facing Sweden.
With the morning foursomes points split one-each, the singles would decide the match. Two big wins from Amelia Williamson (7&5) and Caley Mcginty (5&4) took England within just one point of a second consecutive win against Sweden.
Reigning Euroepan Ladies' Amateur Champion, Ingrid Lindblad dispatched Charlotte Heath 5&4 in her match to get a point back for Sweden. But it wouldn't be enough, Lottie Woad's 3&1 victory would seal the decisive point for England, keeping the dream of defending the title alive.
They'll face Italy in Saturday's gold medal match.
The Italian side defeated Spain in the second semi-final in Wales. The morning foursomes matches were extremely close.
Emilie Paltrinieri and Carolina Melgrati drew first blood for Italy with victory on the 18th, while Anna Zanusso and Alessandra Fanali crucially turned their match around to win on the 19th making it 2-0.
The Spanish side never seemed to recover. Two big wins, 5&4 from Benedetta Moresco, and 8&7 by Emilie Paltrinieri were enough to book a spot in the final alongisde England.
EUROPEAN BOYS' TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - GC ST. LEON-ROT
Day four of the European Boys' Team Championship was full of exciting moments. Most importantly, the semi final matches have found their victors. Germany defeated Spain with an impressive 4.5-2.5, and England won 4-3 against Sweden.
The hosting GC St. Leon-Rot has been the witness of two great semi finals, that ultimately lead to the duel for the crown of the European Boys Team Championship 2022. Many matches were played on a sunny day in Germany, but only four teams were still in the race for the title.
In the first semi final, Germany swept to a convincing victory. Although things didn’t always look that clear: after the foursomes, the result was 1:1. The singles however turned into a show of force by the defending champions.
Every point scored by the germans was achieved prematurely. And even the last match between Tim Wiedemeyer and Sergio Jiménez, which was called off due to the german win, was at that time led by the Munich based player.
In the end, the result was 4.5 to 2.5 and Golf Team Germany proceeds to the final, where coach Herrmann and his team want to defend their title.
The second semi-final was played between England and Sweden. The english team was able to score an early advantage as it retained both points from the foursomes. Both matches ended 3&2 for England.
The afternoon started exactly like the morning had ended: with a somewhat dominant english team. But: this semi-final was not going to be a walk in the park. Team Sweden had other plans.
As the singles matured over the course of the afternoon, England scored another point with Harley Smith (ENG) derailing Vincent Stjernfeldt (SWE) with a dominant 7&6. But on the other hand, Sweden managed to find a good lead in two of the matches.
And the Scandinavians reeled these points in: William Wistrand (SWE) beat Tyler Weaver (ENG) 2&1, after giving away an even higher lead. And Nils Svanberg (SWE) won against Josh Hill (ENG) 3&2.
Things came down to the wire, as Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson (SWE) turned his match against Josh Berry. The Swedish player won hole 17 to even out the match for the first time in the round. And he took the momentum to also win the 18th hole.
Suddenly the match was at 3:3. And there was only one last match out on the course.
In this group, Frank Kennedy (ENG) was leading Albert Hansson (SWE) 1up. Hansson was under pressure to win this last hole in order to force England into a playoff. But he could not convert his will into deeds: even if his long putt of more than ten meters had dropped, Frank Kennedy still would have to miss his five foot putt.
It was not to be. Kennedy kept his lead and secured the decisive fourth point for Team England.
The match for the gold medal will start at 08:32 o’clock from tee one on Saturday. The match for third place will start right before that at 08:12, with Spain and Sweden at the tee.
EUROPEAN GIRLS' TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - ODDUR GOLF CLUB, ICELAND
France continues to stand out at Oddur Golf Club as they defeated their semi-final opponent, Germany, in a big match demonstrating great sportsmanship.
After winning both foursomes, the French girls looked like they could win the match comfortably. However Germany had other ideas.
The first singles matches went in favour of Germany with Tessa Kremser defeating Ines Archer, and Emilie von Finckenstein winning against Vairana Heck.
Both teams were then tied with two points each, all leading to the last singles which saw 2021 Junior Vagliano Trophy player Constance Fouillet dominating her match against Philippa Gollan.
The final point was then decided between French Carla De Troia, who showed a solid performance against 2021 JVT player & 2021 EYM winner Helen Briem. De Troia holed a birdie to win the match and to lead her team into the finals.
France will be facing Sweden, who began the day with foursomes matches against England. Nathalie Borg & Kajsalotta Svarar of Sweden won their match over Maggie Whitehead & Isla Mcdonald O’Brien.
The second foursome went on to a play-off until hole 20, where Swedish Elin Pudas Remler & Filippa Sundquist imposed themselves over English Ellen Yates & Rachel Gourley, concluding the morning with two points for Sweden.
The afternoon singles then started off strong thanks to 2021 Junior Vagliano Trophy players Meja Örtengren and Nora Sundberg. Both players had rested in the morning and took the lead of their respective match from the beginning. They brought two additional points which were enough to secure Sweden’s spot in the finals.
England will therefore compete against Germany to claim the bronze medals tomorrow.
The non-medal matches will oppose Czech Republic to Denmark and Spain to Belgium.
In Flight B, Ireland, Netherlands and Italy won their matches.
In Flight C, Slovakia won their match against Iceland, securing 16th position in the final ranking.