TWO prominent lady members of Barnard Castle Golf Club flew the flag for the North at the finals of Daily Mail Foursomes at St Pierre, Chepstow.

Last year's lady captain Sue Blaeford and Sheila Kilgarriff, wife of the club's competition secretary, were among 16 couples from an entry of 1,753 who spent five days at St Pierre.

"The only others from the North were a couple from Preston, who we beat in the first round," said Sheila., an 11-handicapper.

"Then we lost 4 and 3 in the quarter-finals to two young county players from Bath who went on to win the final 8 and 7. We played OK but they were too strong for us.

"It was a marvellous experience, especially for me because I'm not a county player and I've never been involved in anything like this before.

"After winning our club qualifier we got through seven rounds to reach the finals and I didn't realise what we'd achieved until we got there.

"They made such a fuss of us. There were announcements on the tee and leader boards, and they gave us fantastic trophies. It's a memory I will always cherish."

Sue, a county golfer who plays off four, has tasted success at national level before, having won the lady captains' cup at Forest of Arden last year.

Husbands John Kilgarriff and Vince Blaeford accompanied their wives and acted as caddies.

But much to their disappointment they will not be repeating the trip next year as the ladies failed to win the club qualifier