The Continent of Europe lead Great Britain & Ireland 7.5 to 4.5 at the halfway stage of the 2023 Jacques Léglise Trophy in France.
The momentum went the visitors way in the opening hour of the morning foursomes matches at Golf de Chantilly, with the GB&I side going up in three of the four foursomes matches after the first few holes.
At the turn, it looked like the morning session could swing either way, with just one hole seperating all four matches on-course.
In the fourth match, Tim Wiedemeyer (Germany) and Peer Wernicke (Germany) were one-down after eight holes against Niall Sheils Donegan (Scotland) and Donnacha Cleary (Ireland), but went onto win five of the next seven holes to put the first point of the day on the board for the home team.
Momentum with Europeans
Securing the first point of the day seemed to shift the momentum towards the European side, who went up in the other three matches down the closing stretch in the following minutes.
The French duo of Hugo Le Goff and Louis Anceaux won the 17th and 18th holes for a two hole win over the English pairing of Hugh Adams and Monty Holcombe, taking the overall match score to 2-0 in favour of the trophy-holders.
Despite being one-down with two holes to play, recently crowned R&A Boys' Amateur Champion, Kris Kim (England) and team captain, Dylan Shaw Radford (England), turned their match around against the Spaniards, Jorge Siyuan Hao and Marcel Fonseca Aguilar, to put the first point of the day on the board for the visitors.
In the final match of the session still on-course, Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson (Sweden) and Simon Hovdal (Sweden) closed out a one-hole victory over the Irish duo of Sean Keeling and Jack Murphy to ensure the the Continent of Europe went into the lunchtime break with the 3-1 advantage.
Singles matches
The momentum stayed in favour of the European side in the top singles matches in the afternoon. In the first match, Lev Grinberg (Ukraine) decisively swept aside Oliver Mukherjee (Scotland), 7&6, to score the first-ever point by a Ukrainian player in the history of the Jacques Léglise Trophy.
Wernicke soon followed with a 5&4 victory of his own over Kim to take the score to 5-1 for the Continent of Europe.
Sheils Donegan stopped the bleeding for the GB&I side, defeating Anceaux 3&2 to put the first red point of the afternoon on the board.
Although a birdie-eagle finish from Wiedemeyer to win by two holes against the GB&I captain and a 5&3 win from Hovdal extended the home teams score to 7-2.
The closing matches of the day went in favour of the visitors with Cleary Keeling added two points to GB&I's tally, while Adams and Fonseca Aguilar couldn't be separated after 18 holes, leaving the halfway total at 7.5 to 4.5.