Scotland boys trail 3-2 to Ireland boys 

FROM THE R AND A WEBSITE

England got their defence of the Boys' Home Internationals Title off to a winning start when they won three and halved one of the five foursomes on a bright and breezy first morning at St Annes Old Links.

In the other match, Ireland edged ahead against Scotland, winning the foursomes 3-2, with all but one of the keenly contested matches going as far at the 17th hole.

After the first four matches had been shared, Reece Black from Hilton Templepatrick and Castle's Robert Moran clinched the vital fifth point for Ireland with a 4 and 2 victory over Inverallochy's Marc Watt and Jack Broun from Ayr Belleisle.

English title defence starts strongly

Northamptonshire's Ben Jones and Florida-based Joe Pagdin, who plays out of the Lake Nona club, got England off to a flyer with a 6 and 5 victory over Tom Peet and James Ashfield.

Wales levelled when Tenby's Luke Harries and George Bryant from Staddon Heights beat Ham Manor's Charlie Strickland and Toby Briggs from Dunston Hall 2 & 1 in the top match.

Stoke Park 14-year-old Conor Gough and Robin Williams put England in front with a one hole victory over Ben Hicks from Parc and Nefyn's Tom Froom, while Sherborne's Thomas Plumb and Harry Goddard from Hanbury Manor had a 2 & 1 victory over Ashburnham's Aled Greville and Harry Frazer from Pennard to extend the lead.

Pwllheli's Sean Davies and Thomas Matthews from Oswestry stopped the rot when they halved their match with Jack Cope from The Players Club and Danny Daniels from Essendon.

Ireland edge ahead of Scotland

Nairn's Callum Scott and Aidan O'Hagan from Ranfurly got the first point on the board for Scotland with a 2 and 1 win over John Brady from Rosslare and Dundalk's Eoin Murphy, only for Cameron Raymond of Newlands and Tuam's Ross Kelly to level things minutes later with victory by the same margin over Callum Bruce of Duff House Royal and Kirkhill's Lewis Irvine.

Kilkenny's Mark Power and Jack Hearn of Tramore edged Ireland ahead with another 2 and 1 win over Eric McIntosh from Bruntsfield Old Links and Peebles' Darren Howie, only for John Paterson from the New Course in St Andrews and Campbell Gibson from Blairgowrie to level things again when they beat John Doherty from Carlton House and Chartie Denvir  of Elm Park by two holes

The teams contest ten singles in the afternoon matches. Follow live scoring on our Championships Site.