Irish captain John Moloughney was philosophical after his battling side had come so close to winning the European Boys' Championship for only the second time in the 21-year history of the event in Holland at the weekend. The record books will show that they lost in the final 3 1/2-1 1/2 to Scotland, but the scoreline conceals the real drama that unfolded over the last half-hour of the championship which had been plagued by rain.
Conditions were so bad on Saturday morning, with greens flooded and casual water everywhere on the Noord-Nederlandse course, that play was held up for two hours and tournament director Paul Fisher was forced to reduce the number of foursomes from two to one, and the singles from five to four.
Although that was a disappointment, the final still turned out to be a cracker. Ireland lost the foursomes match where the Scottish pair of Martin Laird and Jack Doherty beat Philip McLaughlin and Martin McTernan 5 and 4 after being seven up after eight.
In the top singles, Connemara's Derek McNamara came up against an inform Scottish Boys' champion, Stephen Buckley, to lose 3 and 2. This meant the other three singles had to go Ireland's way for victory. Dublin teenager David Ryan was having a battle royal with Aberdeen's Kevin Reid until the closing stages when Ryan pulled clear to win 3 and 2.
It was after he holed out on the 16th that the drama really unfolded. Kenneth Fahey from Connemara came to the last one up on the impressive David Inglis, needing just a half to tie things up for Ireland. But Inglis rifled a nine-iron to within eight feet of the flag and calmly slotted the putt for a birdie to level matters and force the game into sudden death.
As they were going up the l9th, little did they know that, behind, Banbridge's Connor Doran was staging an amazing recovery against Mark Risbridger who was, in fact, two up with two to play. Doran took advantage of a fluffed Risbridger chip at the 17th to reduce the gap, and then hit a massive drive down the last, whereas the Scottish boy chipped poorly for the second successive hole - and Doran got his regulation four to square.
They then moved on to the 19th as the match in front was approaching the green - unfortunately for Fahey, he failed with a putt of some eight feet and Inglis was allowed to tap in a three-footer for the victory.
There was obvious disappointment in the Irish camp but they have every reason to be proud of their performances during the week, and one reward for taking the silver medal will be a trip to Japan next June for the World Junior Team Championships.
