Selectors opt for mix of youth and experience

The Irish selectors have gone for a mixture of youth and experience in naming five new caps on the 11-man team for the Home Internationals over the Royal St David's Golf Club in Harlech, Wales, from September 11th to 13th.

The new caps are John McGinn (Greenore), Gareth Maybin (Ballyclare), Darren Crowe (Dunmurray/ Royal Dublin), Sean McTernan (Co Sligo) and Padraig Dooley (Cork).

McGinn won the Irish Close Championship at Carlow Golf Club last month while Maybin, who emerged as the only player with six wins out of six matches in the Interprovincial Championship at Slieve Russell last week, also won the North of Ireland Championship at Royal Portrush.

Crowe is a current youth International while Dooley and McTernan have played at youth level for Ireland.

Ken Kearney, who reached the final of the Irish Close Championship, returns to the team after an absence of four years, having last played in the Home Internationals at Royal Porthcawl in 1998.

The team also includes the newly-crowned World Universities champion, Justin Kehoe, plus East of Ireland champion, Noel Fox, South of Ireland champion and Willie Gill Award winner, Colm Moriarty, and West of Ireland champion, Stuart Paul.

Five of the team - Fox, McGinn, Moriarty, Kehoe and Maybin plus Tim Rice - will contest the European Individual Amateur Championship at the Troia Golf Club in Portugal starting tomorrow. They will be bidding to emulate the feat of Hermitage's Stephen Browne, who won the title in Denmark last year.

IRELAND: Darren Crowe (Dunmurry/Royal Dublin), Padraig Dooley (Cork), Noel Fox (Portmarnock), Ken Kearney (Roscommon), Justin Kehoe (Birr), Gareth Maybin (Ballyclare), Colm Moriarty (Athlone), Andrew McCormick (Scrabo), John McGinn (Greenore), Sean McTernan (Co Sligo), Stuart Paul (Tandragee).

Ireland's Clancy Bowe (Tramore) and Gareth Shaw (Lurgan) have been selected on the Britain and Ireland boys' team for the Jacques Leglise Trophy at Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 30th and 31st.

Bowe and England boys' captain Farren Keenan where members of last year's team that was comprehensively beaten 16-8 by the Continent of Europe at Chantill.

Mark Pilling, the winner of the British Boys' Amateur Championship at Carnoustie last week, is rewarded with a place in the team. The 17-year-old from Cheshire defeated Welsh international Rhys Davies at the 37th hole of an engrossing final and is now awarded his first cap.

Keenan is joined in the team by English colleagues Matt Richardson, Michael Skelton, Jamie Moul and Paul Waring, all members of the winning side in the Boys' Home Internationals.

Royal Porthcawl has been selected as the venue for the 2005 Jacques Leglise Trophy, to be played on August 26th and 27th, 21 years after Britain and Ireland boys recorded a 6½ - 5½ win on the same South Wales links. Next year's event will be at Lahinch while Nairn will host the event in 2004.

BRITAIN AND IRELAND BOYS: Clancy Bowe (Tramore), Gareth Shaw (Lurgan), Rhys Davies (Royal Porthcawl, capt), Matthew Richardson (Pinner Hill), Farren Keenan (Royal Mid-Surrey) and Mark Skelton (Hunley Hall), Jamie Moul (Stoke-by-Nayland), Paul Waring (Bromborough). Mark Pilling (Astbury).

Irish Women's captain, Mary McKenna, will not be short of experience and familiarity when she leads the Ireland team in the Home Internationals at the Berkshire GC starting tomorrow.

McKenna was twice a winner over the Berkshire course in the now defunct Avia Foursomes with Bellee Robertson and Tegwan Perkins, and she also played there this year in the British Mid-Amateur Championship with three members of the current squad - Curtis Cup player Alison Coffey, who finished fourth, Tricia Mangan (fifth) and Sinead Keane (10th).

IRELAND: Alison Coffey (Warrenpoint), Martina Gillen (Beaverstown), Sinead Keane (Curragh), Tricia Mangan (Ennis), Darragh McGowan (Athenry/Ballybofey and Stranorlar), Heather Nolan (Shannon), Eileen Rose Power (Kilkenny), Marian Riordan (Tipperary/Ballykisteen). Capt: Mary McKenna (Donabate). Manager: Sheena O'Brien Kenney (Grange).