'But overall, when you look at the week as a whole, we have to be really proud of ourselves. We beat Spain by a shot in the qualifying and then went so close today.

'It just shows how close England are to be being the best country in Europe. We are right up there with Spain and Sweden and we have proved it.'

The first blow against England fell when the foursomes match involving English champion Felicity Johnson (Harborne) and Emma Duggleby (Malton & Norton) reached the 19th green. One of their caddies, a local golfer, touched the line of the putt, breaking the rules of golf. 'Emma saw it happen, called the penalty and gave them the match, said Beverley. 'The lad was absolutely gutted.'

She went on: 'We might have lost the hole anyway, we had an eight-footer to go up the 20th, but it did leave a funny feeling.'

In the singles, Emma again lost on the 19th, as did Sophie Walker (Kenwick Park). Kerry Smith (Waterlooville) lost her match on the 17th but Faye Sanderson (Heworth, Durham) provided England?s second point of the day with a 3/2 success.

England v Spain.

Foursomes: Felicity Johnson & Emma Duggleby lost to Belen Mozo & Adriana Zwanck at the 19th.

Sophie Walker & Kerry Smith beat Tania Elosequi & Maria Hernandez 5/4.

Singles:

Johnson lost to Zwanck 5/4.

Walker lost to Mozo at the 19th.

Duggleby lost to Hernandez at 19th.

Faye Sanderson beat Emma Cabrera 3/2.

Smith lost to Elosequi 2/1.

England?s girls win European gold

England are the golden girls of European golf - snatching victory in the European Girls' Team Championship in Lucerne with a stunning fight back.

They beat Sweden 3-2, despite trailing in all three singles matches as holes began to run out. 'It was an absolutely fantastic victory,' said ELGA's national coach Pat Smillie.

The teams shared the honours in the two morning foursomes but the Swedes quickly took the upper hand in the singles. After 10 holes Melissa Reid (Chevin) was three down and Jodi Ewart (Catterick) was two down. After 12 holes Kiran Matharu (Cookridge Hall) was also two down.

Then the fight back began. Jodi birdied 14, 15 and 16 to square her match and parred the difficult short 17th to go one up. But, with adrenaline pumping, she over hit into 18 and the match went into extra time. The 19th was halved but the Yorkshire girl settled matters with a birdie on the 20th.

Melissa also made up ground but was eventually beaten 2/1 - and went straight back out to caddy for Kiran. The 16-year-old birdied 14, 16 and 17 to go one up and then won the 18th for a two up score line.

'All of sudden we had pinched it and the Swedes were absolutely speechless,' said Pat Smillie. 'It was just a fantastic team effort.'

This is England's first victory in this tournament and they are only the fourth nation to put their name on the trophy, following Sweden - the defending champions - Spain and Germany.

'This says that we can now compete at European level and that the training and lottery funding is paying dividends,' said Pat.

The England team was completed by Emma Sheffield (Newark) and all four girls are members of ELGA's Sport England, lottery-funded World Class training programme.

England vs Sweden (England names first).

Foursomes:

Kiran Matharu & Melissa Reid beat Linn Gustafsson & Anna Dahlberg-Soderstrom 3/2.

Jodi Ewart & Emma Sheffield lost to Camilla Lennarth & Anna Nordqvist 4/3.

Singles:

Reid lost to Nordqvist 2/1.

Ewart beat Gustafsson at the 20th.

Matharu beat Lennarth 2 up.