LIZ McCombe brilliantly retained the English Seniors Women's Championship at a wet and windy Lindrick.

The weather might have been cool but McCombe, the tall, classy player from the Hockley Club in Winchester, was in red-hot form.

She carded a 77 - three over par - to head a qualifying section red-uced to only 18 holes through the foul weather. Then, after comfortably brushing aside Penny Bellamy in the first round of matchplay, she had to bat-tle tooth and nail to keep her title.

Hilary Green, a fellow England selector, sank six single putts and a chip but McCombe matched her all the way and took a superb second-round match at the 18th.

The semi-final against Sarah Miller went to the first extra play-off hole, a par five which McCombe reduced to an eagle three with a five iron approach to four feet and a successful putt.

"I was feeling really good about my game," says Liz, "and I carried it on into the final against Vibeke Morgan. I birdied the first three holes to go three up then parred the fourth to win that one as well."

Morgan, who beat McCombe in the quarter-finals two years ago, managed to steady the boat but, when she fired two successive birdies and McCombe matched each one, the Denham player knew it was not going to be her day.

McCombe took the match 3 and 2 and became the first ever player to retain the national seniors crown. Her reward is to lead England into the European Seniors Team Championship in Rome in October.

She and Morgan are joining forces to play an international seniors event in Paris this week but her duties as chairman of the England selectors and Great Britain and Ireland selector mean she will be doing more watching than playing this summer.

Hampshire will certainly miss her during County Week in June when they try to qualify for the regional final of the English County Championships.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.