Team Great Britain & Ireland lead the St Andrews Trophy at the halfway stage.
The St Andrews Trophy, being played for the first time in four years at Penati Golf resort, is a biennial match between the best male amateur players from the Continent of Europe and Great Britain & Ireland.
The home team took the upper-hand early on in the morning session in Slovakia, going up in three of the four matches through the turn.
German pair, Anton Albers and Laurenz Schiergen closed out their match 3&2 against John Gough and Robert Moran to draw first blood in favour of the trophy holders.
Arron Edwards-Hill and Calum Scott were 1-down in the second foursomes match against Pietro Bovari and Daniel Da Costa Rodrigues. A closing birdie on the 18th would draw the match level however, and secure a half-point for the visitors.
Barclay Brown and Mark Power also recovered a half point in their match from a losing position to take the score to 2-1, with the final foursomes match all-square through 17 holes.
Sam Bairstow and Matt McClean claimed the final hole for a 1-up win, drawing the score level by lunch.
Despite sharing the points, the morning result was a blow for the Continent of Europe side, who looked like they would take a 3-1 lead with just a few holes to play.
The afternoon session went heavily in favour of the GB&I side. John Gough, Mark Power, Barclay Brown and Sam Bairstow all won their matches on the 17th hole.
Anton Albers came out on top in a tight match against Robert Moran to rescue a point for the Continental side, while Pietro Bovari and Archie Davies halved their match.
Arron Edwards-Hill dominated his match with David Lundgren 6&5 to put yet another point on the board for the visitors.
The final match on the course between Max Steinlechner and Calum Scott went down the 18th. The closing stretch was favourable for the GB&I side once again, with the Scottish player winning the hole to prevent a win for the Continent of Europe.
The GB&I won the session 6-2 to bring the total score to 8-4 at the halfway stage. The home side will have to overcome a big deficit on Day 2 if they want to retain the trophy won in 2018.
The final day of matches on Friday will see four foursomes in the morning and nine singles in the afternoon. The GB&I team will need five points from the 13 matches to guarantee they return home with the trophy.
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Photo credit: Martin Zilka/ @photomartini
