---

After sweeping to a commanding lead over the Irish team in the bi-annual "Carter Challenge" early in the week, the Americans faltered, and the Irish dominated the competition in the third and fourth days, played in International Rules singles. Coming into the final day of American Rules doubles, the U.S. team had to win all six matches; they won four.

---

APRIL 19, PALM BEACH. Simon Williams finished the final turn of the Saturday morning American Rules doubles match with the decisive wicket that clinched the 15-12 total match victory for the Irish. After trailing most of the match, Williams and Michael O'Shaughnessy took control when Bill Berne and Richard Powell both got partner dead and forged ahead 14-12 in game 2 of the match, having won the first.

Aggressive play and a missed wicket let the Americans back in, and last turns began with Berne and Powell each set for 1-back and all four balls with significant deadness. Berne ran yellow through 1-back, made a light roquet on Powell in front of 1-back, then a thin take-off to Williams black ball which had hit 4-back when attempting to go to corner 3. Berne retrieved black for Powell, but instead of setting a 3-ball break for the win, left all three balls near 1-back.

The decision was made to force O'Shaughnessy to hit in 35 yards from corner 4, rather than a 23 yard attempt at a potential pioneer at 2-back. O'Shaughnessy missed and Powell ran 1-back to tie. He then roqueted black, took off to get blue from the boundary, then set blue ahead to 2-back, but did not hold the necessary rush on yellow. The long roll send yellow to blue, but left red with no hoop shot. Powell retreated to the corner, leaving Berne the winning play. Williams, however, stood in the way, and when he hit the 27-yarder was able to rush to 5 and score the winning hoop.

The Americans made a good run otherwise, with Kelley and Wolman finishing early over Alan McInerney and Charlie von Schmieder, and Ruby and Fournier outdueling Ronan McInerney and Ed Cunningham in the morning.

The 15-12 victory for the Irish broke down as follows: International Rules Singles - Irish 13 wins (von Schmieder with 3, all others with 2); US 5 wins (Fournier 2, Ruby, Kelley and Powell one each. American Rules Doubles - US 7 wins (Fournier and Kelley 3 wins, all others 2), Ireland 2 wins (Williams and O'Shaughnessy both). The Irish won 30 and lost 14 singles games, The Americans won 15 and lost 8 doubles games.

The statistics for triples show Williams and Ronan McInerney making 3 each, Cunningham 2, and one each for Alan McInerney, Fournier, and Ruby.

DOUBLES RESULTS ON THE FINAL DAY

Fournier/Ruby (US)	def.	R. McInerney/Cunningham (Ire)	21-26, 26-9, 26-14
Williams/O'Shaughnessy (Ire)	def.	Berne/Powell (US)	26-3, 15-14
Kelley/Wolman (US)	def.	Alan McInerney/von Schmieder (Ire)	14-13, 19-13, 26-4
Berne/Powell (US)	def.	R. McInerney/Cunningham (Ire)	26-2, 26-2
Williams/O'Shaughnessy (Ire)	def.	Kelley/Wolman (US)	21-23, 26-12, 26-11
Fournier/Ruby (US)	def.	Alan McInerney/von Schmieder (Ire)	26-6, 14-26, 26-12

Editor's note: It's been a busy month for the Fournier brothers of Phoenix. Don, Jr. played well in the Solomon Cup in Thousand Oaks, California, followed by the Presidents Cup, where brother John teamed with Rhys Thomas against the British. Teenager Jacques scored the best record of all the Americans in Palm Beach in the Irish-American test.