Five South Holland bowlers helped Lincolnshire lift the Walker Cup on Sunday.
Ruby Hill, Chelsea Tomlin (both Royal Mail Cart), Annie Dunham, Louise Catchpole (both Carter’s Park, Holbeach) and Lucy Cooke (Castle) helped the county claim glory in the inter-county double rink discipline at the national championships held at Leamington Spa on Sunday.
The morning’s semi-final was always close against a strong Oxfordshire team.
However, Lincolnshire finished the stronger and eventually won comfortably by a hefty ten shots.
Their opponents in the final were Northamptonshire, who required an extra end to clinch their last four clash against Wiltshire.
In the final, Lincolnshire started exceptionally well to open up between a 10 and 15 shot lead.
They were, however, required to hold off a spirited fightback by Northamptonshire to eventually close out the final and win by five shots.
This is Lincolnshire’s third success in the competition, adding to their previous victories in 1976 and 2000.
This was only Northamptonshire’s second final appearance, reaching the same stage in 1985 – but they are yet to win the title.
Rink scores: Semi-final – Lincolnshire beat Oxfordshire 42-32 (Louise Catchpole, Lucy Cooke, Penny Strong and Annie Dunham won 20-17; Caroline Cullum, Ruby Hill, Chelsea Tomlin and Amy Gowshall won 22-15).
Final – Lincolnshire beat Northamptonshire 37-32 (Catchpole, Cooke, Strong and Dunham lost 20-21; Cullum, Hill, Tomlin and Gowshall won 17-11).
