DIGEST: Dublin teenager David Rawluk took one of the most notable scalps in the British Boys' Amateur Championship over the Royal Liverpool links at Hoylake yesterday to move into the fourth round.
The 17-year-old Senior Cup player for The Island chalked up a 2 and 1 success over Laurence Allen, who hit the headlines when he reached the semi-finals of the English Amateur Championship earlier this month at Alwoodley.
Rawluk, in his third year as a Boy International, was two up with five to play, but Allen, by getting down in two from a greenside bunker at the 14th and firing a three-wood onto the heart of the 15th green, squared the match.
Rawluk played an immaculate three-iron to the heart of the 16th green on his way to restoring his lead, and when he knocked in a four-foot putt at the next and Allen missed from a little further, it was all over.
Rawluk's reward is a fourth round meeting this morning with the German-based England international Ben Parker.
Moments earlier Limerick's Cian McNamara had booked his place in the last 32 with a convincing 5 and 4 defeat of Jonathan Watt of Brockenhurst.
Knock's Nicholas Grant became the third Irishman to reach round four, but he did it the hard way, needing to go three extra holes to dispose of Rye teenager Ben Evans. He now faces the youngest player left in the competition, Oliver Fisher, aged 14, from Essex.
Aaron O'Callaghan from Douglas fell by the wayside, beaten 5 and 4 in round three by last year's runner-up, Welsh senior international Rhys Davies.
Lurgan's Gareth Shaw had a hard day. He did exceptionally well to get past Spaniard Carlos Del Moral at the 19th hole in the morning, but then lost on the last to Bradley Brooke.
**********
GIRLS' HOME INTERNATIONALS: Ireland came down to earth with a vengeance at Pyle & Kenfig yesterday when they crashed to a shock 6-3 defeat at the hands of host nation Wales.
The Carlow sisters - Karen and Tara Delaney - lined up together in the foursomes and went down to Lydia Hall and Breanne Loucks 2 and 1 after a terrific battle, and the other two games went the same way.
Tara got some sort of revenge after lunch by defeating Hall 2 and 1, but Karen was well beaten - 5 and 3 - by Welsh champion Lucy Gould.
Sinead O'Sullivan and Catherine Tucker got the singles points for Ireland to add to the one gained by Tara.
They would need to defeat England, who beat Scotland 6-3, by a massive margin to stand any chance of taking the Stroyan Cup as champions today.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)