The Continent of Europe beat Great Britain & Ireland 16½-8½ to win the Jacques Léglise Trophy at Falsterbo Golf Club in Sweden.
Leading GB&I 6½-5½ after the first day’s play, the Continent of Europe strengthened its position by winning three and halving one of the four morning foursomes matches to provide the hosts with a four-point advantage ahead of the afternoon’s singles matches.
Joachim Fourquet’s side then picked up 6½ points of the nine available in the singles to seal their second win on the bounce in the boys’ international match.
In the morning’s foursomes, Oiha Guillamoundeguy and Riccardo Fantinelli set the tone with a 3&2 win against the Scottish pairing of playing captain Cameron Adam and Ruben Lindsay, while Italian duo Marco Florioli and Flavio Michetti were in impressive form on their way to a 4&3 success against Archie Finnie and Joshua Hill.
Daniel Svard and Tim Wiedemeyer picked up a third point for the Continent of Europe after beating Daniel Bullen and Harley Smith 2&1, but GB&I salvaged a halve from the session after Jack Bigham and Josh Hill shared the spoils with German double act Tiger Christensen and Yannick Malik.
Christensen kicked off the singles in style with a thumping 7&6 defeat of Boys’ Amateur champion Bigham to make it 11-6. Fantinelli, runner-up to the English international at Royal Cinque Ports earlier this month, edged his side closer to victory by comfortably beating Lindsay 3&2 to claim another point.
Michetti’s comprehensive 5&4 win over Connor Graham proved to be the clincher, with the hosts moving into an unassailable 13-6 lead to ensure it keeps hold of the trophy won in England two years ago.
Smith pulled a point back for GB&I shortly after with a narrow 1up win over Malik, but Guillamoundeguy restored the seven-point cushion after beating Josh Hill by the same scoreline to make it 14-7.
GB&I playing captain Adam managed to win a point in his match against Svard, only for Wiedemeyer to return a 2&1 victory against his compatriot Archie Finnie.
Jaime Montojo and Joshua Hill’s match finished all-square, which left Marco Florioli to round off a very successful two days for the Continent of Europe with a 2&1 win over Bullen, leaving the final score 16½-8½.
Full scores from the match can be found here.