Maguires bow out of Women’s British Open Amateur Championship

The Maguire flames were extinguished at the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship in South Wales yesterday when both Leona and Lisa fell by the wayside.

Leona was the first to go beaten 3&1 in the third round over the Machynys Peninsula Course in Llanelli by Spaniard Noemi Jiminez and twin sister Lisa followed her onto the sidelines hours later when she went down 3&2 to another Spaniard Luna Sobron in the quarter-finals.

Leona from Slieve Russell got off to a disappointing start against Jimenez-no relation to the Ryder Cup player of the same name- losing two of the first three holes and was three down after six.

The Curtis Cup star was forced to play catch-up after that and although she did put up a fight she never really looked like bridging the gap and eventually succumbed on the penultimate hole.

It was a similar story for Lisa in the afternoon as she made a disastrous start against Sobron losing four of the first five holes.

She rallied bravely winning 8,9 and 10 to reduce the defecit to just one but was unable to level the match and when the Spaniard took the 13th the writing really was on the wall- and she captured the 16th aswell to close out the match.

Earlier Lisa had defeated Italian Roberta Liti by 2&1 in round three.

Sobron now meets German Karolin Lampert this morning for a place in the final while in the other semi Jiminez clashes with the last surviving Briton Georgia Hall,ranked number seven in the world who went down to Northern Ireland's Stephanie Meadow in the semi-finals at Carnoustie last June.

Hall has already shown her liking for South Wales as last August she won the British Girls Championship at nearby Tenby.Today's winner will not only receive the imposing Championship Cup but will also receive invitations to the Ricoh British Women's Open at St Andrews in August and the US Womens Open next year.