It was a privilege to play at The West Lancashire Golf Club. The course has played host to a number of great events including The Open Championships Final Qualifiers a number of times. The course is situated on natural seaside terrain with immaculate greens making the historic West Lancashire Golf Club a must for all enthusiastic golfers visiting the North West. A pleasing feature of the course is that several of the holes have elevated tees that provide splendid views over the water.

We travelled up to the Club on Saturday morning and met there at 15.30 for sandwiches and then went out to play. This was to try out foursomes pairings and to give our Captain Rachel some indication as to who her team would be. She had 9 players to pick from and only 8 would play against the Army and Navy on the Wednesday & Thursday. After golf, time was our own time so we all settled in to our rooms in The Suites Hotel, Knowsley and, later, most of us met in the hotel bar for a few sociable drinks. We had a laugh trying to speak the Liverpool lingo.

The next day was an admin day. Sgt Helen Beddows (Team Manager) and I went to the supermarket to stock up on supplies for the girls. It is important t keep their energy up when playing. That night was the Tri-Service dinner which was held in the hotel.

The Monday was our practice round. This is always a great opportunity to start putting into practice the technical and course management techniques that our coach Si Burdett has been going through with us all season and also NLP training from Rachel. After 9 holes of being battered by rain and heavy winds, our Captain decided to give people the opportunity to come in, rest and use the practice time on the Tuesday more productively. Some were keen to carry on, though, and this was acceptable. Monday night was the team dinner but before all this Rachel decided who her 8 were to play against the Army and Navy on Wednesday & Thursday. They were: Sgt Michelle Burgess, Sqn Ldr Rachel McAlpine, Flt Lt Karen Swanston, Fg Off Sarah Purdy, FS Alex Mournian, Gp Capt Marian Evans, WO Sue Simpson and Flt Lt Ali McDermott. This meant that SAC Claire Hill became first reserve with myself (Cpl Sammy Cairns) as Admin Support and Sgt Helen Beddows as Team Mgr. At the Team Dinner Gp Capt Evans gave a rousing motivational speech in the style of Colonel Tim Collins. We were all rather awestruck by it and it made us want to win even more.

Tuesday was another practice opportunity and this was also the first day of the competition when the Navy would play the Army. We did nine holes in the foursomes pairings and also spent a few hours with Si Burdett going through the course guide to discuss our strategy on the holes. We also went out and practised chipping and putting on The West Lancs links course. The Army & Navy were battling it out in horrendous conditions and we were eagerly awaiting the scores from this day’s play. It soon filtered through that we were to play the Navy on Wednesday as the Army beat the Navy 7-5. We had a team meeting that night and learned the order of play in the singles for the Wednesday against the Navy. We then had an early night - to rest and focus on the next two days ahead.

The Wednesday morning was an early start to arrive at club in plenty of time for a warm up, but we were greeted with 45 mph winds and gusts up to 55 mph, so the committee got together and it was decided that play would not get under way for the foursomes match. The balls were moving about on the greens and it was not fit for competition play. The weather was to be rechecked at 13.30 hrs. The news we eagerly awaited came and it was decided that we would tee of at 14.00 in the singles. The order of play with the Navy would be: Ali McDermott, Sue Simpson, Marian Evans, Alex Mournian, Karen Swanston, Sarah Purdy, Rachel McAlpine and Michelle Burgess. The wind eased to about 30-35 mph. It was really hard going for the girls battling against wind and rain. On most holes you would have to club 4 clubs up or down to anticipate the conditions - that’s how bad it was. But they battled hard to see the Navy out of competition beating them 5½ – 2½. This was very important because the Army had beaten the Navy 5-3 in the singles. We only needed to draw with the Army to win. But an emphatic victory was agreed to be the most acceptable outcome.

Thursday arrived and we knew what we had to do against the Army and that was to win! The foursomes were played and it was 2-2, same as the Army v Navy match. All we needed in the afternoon was a resounding win in the singles. And we did it beating the Army 5-3! It was close in some of the matches as it went down to the 18^th hole. The excitement rose as the news began to spread that we were the Ladies Inter-Services Champions for 2010 as the last time this was achieved was 2004! This would not have happened if we didn’t have commitment, courage, faith and drive - this has been nagged into us all season by Captain Rachel and Simon the Coach. All their hard work paid off. After the final match, Rachel said: ‘I am so proud of what the team and the supporting squad achieved this week. We have worked hard all year on the mental, physical and technical side of the game. We have also concentrated on course management. We needed to draw on all of this during the competition as we were severely tested, playing in some of the worst conditions we have ever experienced. It is testament to the mettle of the squad that we came through and managed to win a very closely fought competition against our sister Services’.

I’m sure all the ladies would like to give 3 cheers to Rachel. Sadly this is Rachel’s last year as Captain as she is taking over Marian Evans’ role as Director of Ladies’ Golf. The new Captain will be Michelle Burgess and we wish her every success in bringing the trophy home again next year! She has been Vice Captain for four years so will fit easily into her new role. So once again, Rachel, thanks from the team for being such a fantastic and successful Captain. We will not hold it against you that you didn’t even score one point during your final Inter-Services! We would also like to give our thanks to Si Burdett for being our coach and believing that we had it in us to win. Thank you to Sgt Helen Beddows, Team Manager, for keeping us fuelled with water and goodies and making sure we all had Score Cards and Pin Position sheets. Thanks to all the team who played their hearts out in the extreme conditions, and also to the caddies for braving these conditions and keeping the girls on the straight and narrow and focused on their game. Thanks to all the Committee and Sponsors who support us throughout the year and who helped make this event a great success. Without your continued help and support these events would not be possible. Last of all a very big thank you to The West Lancashire Golf Club. We had a fantastic week on your brilliant course. We look forward to playing The Berkshire next year and defending our title.

Report by: Cpl Sammy Cairns