CURTIS CUP:THE 18th green here at Essex County resembles a large amphitheatre, albeit one fronted by a meandering brook. Yet, when Danielle McVeigh, unfazed, rolled in a long birdie putt on the finishing hole in her foursomes to guarantee a halved match, the gesture of raising the putter after the ball as it fell into the tin cup was one of defiance as much as celebration.

This British and Irish team, seeking to end a near decade and a half winless streak in the Curtis Cup, had made their point in the opening series of foursomes – one which said to an American team, a number of whom have pencilled in careers as professional almost as soon as this 36th edition of the biennial match concludes, that nothing will come their way easily.

Indeed, that halved point secured by McVeigh and Leona Maguire against Cydney Clanton and Stephanie Kono brought some symmetry to a remarkable opening series of foursomes. All three foursomes went to the 18th hole; and, more incredibly, all of them were halved which resulted in the teams finishing level, on one and a half points apiece. As the Britain and Ireland captain Mary McKenna put it afterwards, “we dug deep, I think that was the least that we deserved because the girls all played fantastic”.

She wasn’t being greedy for it could have been better. Sally Watson and Rachel Jennings looked destined to secure a victory when leading by two holes with two to play in their match with Jennifer Song and Jennifer Johnson only for the American duo to win the final two holes, Johnson rolling home an 18-foot birdie putt on the 17th and then having the 18th conceded to them after the visitors ran into trouble off the tee and again around the green.

Then again, the flip side of the argument was that the USA probably should, have won the middle match where the English duo of Hannah Barwood and Holly Clyburn overcame a two-hole deficit after eight holes to shake hands all-square on the 18th. Between them, Barwood and Clyburn holed a series of clutch putts. So, a halved match was probably a fair result in the end.

On a day when the sun finally surfaced – after the rain of Thursday had done its best to spoil an opening ceremony which featured everything from the Boston orchestra to a bunch of musket carrying soldiers straight from the Boston tea Party – the British and Irish team settled into their quest to end a losing streak that stretches way back to 1998 in Minneapolis, since when the team have lost six straight matches.

Despite so much rain on the eve of the tournament, which left sections of the fairways sodden but which didn’t affect the speed of the notoriously undulating greens, the crowds were permitted to walk behind the matches in the traditional way and the players from both sides served up some fine shot-making and great creativity around the greens.

In actual fact, the best golf of all came in the bottom foursomes where McVeigh’s birdie putt on the last was the fifth combined birdie of her efforts with Maguire. The McVeigh-Maguire partnership had five birdies in their round, Watson and Jennings had just one, and Barwood and Clyburn managed zero in their war of attrition. On the US side, Song and Johnson’s sole birdie came on the 17th to turn their match, while the Thompson-Korda and Clanton-Kono partnerships each managed two birdies apiece.

Things were different in the better-ball fourballs which followed as players were given the freedom to be aggressive and nobody epitomised that approach more than McVeigh who birdied the first two holes and also the ninth to be four up in partnership with Scotland’s Pamela Pretswell in the top fourball against Jennifer Song and Kimberly Kim.

In the second fourballs, Leona Maguire and Rachel Jennings turned all-square against Alexis Thompson, the sister of US Tour player Nicholas, and Jennifer Johnson, while Lisa Maguire – playing her first match – and Sally Watson were one up at the turn on Jessica Korda and Tiffany Lua in a superb match which featured no fewer than eight birdies between them on the front nine.

MORNING FOURSOMES:

(British and Irish names first:

S Watson and R Jennings halved with J Song and J Jonhson.

H Barwood and H Clyburn halved with A Thompson and J Korda.

D McVeigh and L Maguire halved with C Clanton and S Kono.