HOCKLEY'S golfing girls are this week gunning for their second national team title in four years.

The club's top quartet of Helen Wheeler, Liz McCombe, Jenny Ray and Judy Lewis are playing in the semi-finals of the Mail on Sunday National Team competition tomorrow at Fregate in Provence.

If they win, they will play in the final on Saturday and the chances of repeating their Mail on Sunday triumph in 1996 seem to be considerably higher this time around.

Four years ago, they won the title with only three ladies in the team.

"We managed to lose three of the squad en route to the semi-finals," recalled Wheeler.

"But we still got through and went on to win the final."

Hockley have an impressive record in the competition. After the '96 win, they were beaten semi-finalists at San Roque two years later and, if they are successful this week, they will become the first team to win the trophy twice.

To get to this stage, Hockley have had to win nine matches.

One of the toughest was the first, against Basingstoke, which Wheeler eventually clinched in a sudden-death play-off.

Three-times county champion Wheeler was a key figure in their quarter-final victory over Grange Park.

The match had to be abandoned when a thunderstorm broke over the course and, at that stage, two matches were all square and one Hockley player was three down - but, crucially, Wheeler was four up, which swung it.

Hockley have used six players on their way to the last four with Kay Warner and Fiona Williams, the team captain and organiser, playing their part.

The other finalists in Southern France this week are Woburn, Hickleton and Long Ashton.