Sue Williams has captained the Hampshire Ladies' first team to victory in the Inter-County Championships.

Hampshire were without their top three players but were still able to beat Avon, Sussex and SE Wales to win promotion to the premier division. Four of the six ties were won 3-2 and most of the 30 games were very closely contested, but Hampshire ran out winners with three ties and 52 points.

Captain Sue Williams of Redrice put in a lot of work organising training sessions to bolster team spirit, and finally all that effort paid off handsomely. Flavia Roberts (Conners) who had only recently returned to the UK, came up trumps, winning all her matches in convincing style. Naomi Duthie (David Lloyd) and Lorna Russell (Lee) both won two matches, while Sue Williams, Sharon Cullinane (Winchester) and Alex Clarke (Lee), in her first senior country match, won one each. Flavia, Sue and Sharon plan to take the over 40s competition by storm next season.

Meanwhile, Redrice men's first team has taken the Hampshire Premier title race to the final match of the season. Lying in second place, the team will face league leaders Winchester at Redrice on Thursday 3 April. The Oakwood Shopfitting sponsored team trail by several points, so will require an emphatic victory to win the title for a second successive season. Two recent hard-earned victories have led to this season's climax.

Away at Fair Oak, Ray Burke (3) won the decisive match. In a slow-paced game, which suited the home player, Burke was sucked into a soft lob and drop game, unable to inject pace to pressure his opponent. The fourth game could have gone either way but an outrageous cross-court volley nick gave the Redrice man the match 9-6 6-9 9-2 9-7.

Earlier Adrian Williams (4) and Gary Hales (2) had both won comfortably 3-0. Sue Williams (5), called up for a second time to the first team, twice had winning positions. After taking the first two games she led in both the third and fifth games but, not through lack of effort, she lost out 3-2. The same scoreline befell Stuart Summers, who, playing at number one string in the absence of Michael Elford, lost 9-7 3-9 1-9 9-6 4-9 to England over 35s international Martin Greenslade.

The second team victory came against Lee-on-Solent, as another 18 points were earned in a 4-1 win. Michael Elford (1) returned to the side and beat Dean Watson 9-2 10-9 9-7. Stuart Summers (2) and Gary Hales (3) were 3-0 victors but there was a second first-team defeat of the season for Adrian Williams, against the same opponents as last time but a different player! Ray Burke (3) looked in danger of defeat, trailing by two games to one and 0-6 in the fourth game, but a combination of greater effort and experience saw him win through 9-6 9-1.