England Golf has announced the names of the squad of six players who they are sending to the French Lady Junior Championship at St Cloud, near Paris, from April 17-21.
The squad is Gabriella Cowley, Annabel Dimmock, Alex Peters, Sophie Keech, Sammy Fuller and Sophie Lamb.
This U21 championship is one of the most prestigious in Europe and always attracts a strong field of leading players, whose places in the tournament are determined by their position in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
The full field will play two rounds of stroke play qualifying before the leading 32 players go forward to the match play stages of the Esmond Trophy. The next best 16 players aged under 18 will contest the Cartier Trophy which was won last year by England’s Bronte Law.
The players:
Gabriella Cowley, 18 (Hanbury Manor, Hertfordshire, pictured) was runner-up in this year’s Portuguese amateur championship. She won the England Golf girls’ order of merit for 2013, a year when her achievements included qualifying for the Women’s British Open, winning the Critchley Salver and helping England to retain their crown at the Girls’ Home Internationals.
Annabel Dimmock, 17, (Wentworth, Surrey) won the 2014 Jones-Doherty Cup during a successful trip to the USA for the Orange Blossom Tour, where she was also runner-up in the South Atlantic women’s amateur. She has followed up by becoming runner-up in the Spanish women’s amateur, taking fifth individual place in the European Nations Cup and, with Steven Brown, winning the Sunningdale Foursomes.
Alex Peters, 20, (Notts Ladies’, Nottinghamshire) won the 2013 England Golf women’s order of merit, sponsored by Lorrin Golf. During the year she was runner-up in the English amateur and Welsh stroke play championships and, like Gabriella Cowley, represented GB&I in the Vagliano Trophy against the Continent of Europe. She reached the quarter finals of this year’s Spanish amateur.
Sophie Keech, 17, (Parkstone, Dorset) won the 2013 English girls’ championship, to add to her English schools' and South West girls’ titles. She was a member of England’s winning team at the Girls’ Home Internationals. This year she received England Golf’s Silver Tee award for the way she combines her golf and her studies.
Sammy Fuller, 14, (Roehampton, Surrey) was in England’s winning team at the Girls’ Home Internationals and represented GB&I in the Junior Vagliano Trophy. She had top-ten finishes in the 2013 women’s Welsh Open, Irish Open and English Close Championships, she won the Bridget Jackson Bowl and was third on the Lorrin Golf England girls’ Order of Merit.
Sophie Lamb, 16, (Clitheroe, Lancashire) was leading points scorer in England’s winning team at the Girls’ Home Internationals, won the girls’ championship at the 2013 Fairhaven Trophies and represented GB&I in the junior Vagliano Trophy. She also helped England beat Spain in the annual U16 international.
