Belgium
The Continent of Europe has won the Jacques Léglise Trophy for a team record-extending sixth consecutive time. This week’s home side emerged victorious over Great Britain and Ireland at the Royal Golf Club of Belgium, with a final score of 15 to 10.
Building on a 4-point lead after day 1, the Continent of Europe widened the gap in Saturday’s morning foursomes. Guus Lafeber and Edwin Sjödin set the pace by winning their match 6&5, juste like they did the previous day.
Giovanni Binaghi and Tom de Herrypon scored a second point for the locals, as Stepan Plasek and Vaclav Svub from Czech Republic won hole 18 to halve their contest against Toby Peters and Oscar Lent. Dion Regan and Jack Swift also had to push to the 18th hole, but they were able to secure a full point for Great Britain and Ireland, setting the score to 10,5 to 5,5 in favour of the home side.
With the Continent of Europe needing only two points from the nine afternoon singles to retain, Great Britain and Ireland powered its way to early victories. Harry Cox, Oscar Lent and Ben Bolton clinched all of the top matches to raise their side’s score to 8,5. But a quick success by Callixte Alzas over Jack Swift was followed by yet another one from Vaclav Svub over Sam Marshall, meaning the Continent of Europe would at worst retain the Jacques Léglise Trophy. Tom de Herrypon’s third win of the week came against Dion Regan to eventually give an outright success to the home side.
Guus Lafeber later clinched another full point, his fourth from four matches, for the European team. Giovanni Binaghi hit the last shot of the day, a birdie putt to win the 18th and clinch a half point. The winner would finish with a total of 15 points to the visitors' 10.
