Two teams will represent England Golf in the Vilmorin Cup at the French U21 ladies’ championship at St Cloud - played alongside two rounds of stroke play and the best two scores from each team count each day.
Two teams will represent England Golf in the Vilmorin Cup at the French U21 ladies’ championship at St Cloud, from 2-6 April.
Team A is India Clyburn of Lincolnshire, Alice Hewson of Hertfordshire and Inci Mehmet of Surrey. Team B is Sammie Giles of Cornwall, Sophie Lamb of Lancashire and Bethan Popel of Gloucestershire.
The players will be joined by Gemma Clews of Cheshire for a match against France at St Cloud on the day before the championship, Wednesday, 1 April.
The Vilmorin Cup is played alongside the two rounds of stroke play qualifying at the championship and the best two scores from each team count each day. After 36 holes the leading 32 players go forward to the matchplay stages of the championship for the Esmond Trophy; and the next best 16 players aged under 18 contest the Cartier Trophy.
The players:
India Clyburn, 18, (Woodhall Spa) won the 2014 England Golf Girls’ Order of Merit, sponsored by Ascot Golf, in her last season as a junior. Her individual successes included winning the English girls’ championship, the Scottish junior open, the girls’ title at the Daily Telegraph junior championship and the Royal Birkdale scratch trophy. She was in England’s winning teams at the girls’ and ladies’ Home Internationals – winning all six of her matches at the girls’ event.
Sammie Giles, 20, (St Mellion) is the English women’s mid-amateur champion and the winner of the 2014 Liphook Scratch Cup. Last season she enjoyed consistently good form with a top ten finish at the St Rule Trophy and top 15s at the Helen Holm, the English amateur and the British stroke play.
Alice Hewson, 17, (Berkhamsted) was a member of England’s winning team at the girls’ and ladies’ Home Internationals. She won the Critchley Salver at Sunningdale and the U18 prize at the St Rule Trophy where she also helped England win the Nations Cup and was fourth overall. She was sixth in the English girls’ championship and ninth in the English women’s amateur. This season she was a quarter finalist in the Spanish women’s amateur.
Sophie Lamb, 17, (Clitheroe, Lancashire) successfully defended the girls’ title at the Fairhaven Trophies in 2014. She has been in England’s winning teams at the Girls’ Home Internationals for the last two years and has represented GB&I in the junior Vagliano Trophy. She reached the last 16 in this year’s Spanish women’s amateur.
Inci Mehmet, 18, (Royal Mid Surrey, Image © Leaderboard Photography) was also a member of the team which won the girls’ Home Internationals for the seventh successive year. She was runner-up at the 2014 English women’s amateur championship and has amassed a series of other good results last season, including fourth place in the Portuguese championship, fifth in the Irish open stroke play and fourth in the Critchley Salver. She reached the matchplay stages of the 2015 Spanish women’s amateur.
Bethan Popel, 19, (Long Ashton) was also in the winning team at the women’s Home Internationals and helped England win the Nations Cup at the St Rule Trophy. Her other good results last season included fifth place in the English amateur, seventh place in the women’s Welsh stroke play, 12th place in the Helen Holm Scottish stroke play and 11th in the Portuguese amateur.
Gemma Clews, 20, (Delamere Forest) was in England’s winning team at the ladies’ Home Internationals and won two scratch events last season: the Pleasington Putter and the inaugural Delamere Comboy Trophy. She was also third in the Welsh open stroke play, sixth in the English amateur and 12th in the British stroke play.
